The King is Dead, Long Live the King
by Sakuya01
Summary: In which Shirogane is a sadist, and Ryuuko the unfortunate recipient of much love who must get away from it all.
1. The Players

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Monochrome Factor or any of its characters.

**Summary:** In which Shirogane is a sadist and Ryuuko the unfortunate recipient of much love who must get away from it all. Also: Sawaki the stiff, Kou the mastiff, and darling otouto Homurabi.

**Author's Note: **Summer classes finally over, which is why I'm all happy as hell and started to look for ways to waste my time. Hey, anyone else noticed how Shirogane is a yandere and Akira a tsundere? I know the terms normally apply only to girls, but… Well, I guess I should say they deserve each other. (Hehehe.) Akira doesn't appear here by the way, because this thing supposedly happened when Ryuuko was alive. Heh. _Ryuuko_. I really, really wanted to say this for the longest time: That's a girl's name!

**Warning: **Shirogane being a royal pain in the… Also, no pairings that I really thought about that's not just for humor, despite the creepy summary. And the only sane people are Ryuuko and Sawaki. That deserves a warning, right?

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The King is Dead, Long Live the King

Chapter One: The Players

There were many reasons why Ryuuko had to die, all very different and depending on who one asked about it. Sawaki, for instance, would say something about politics, and Lulu would be sure to mention how the fashion sense of dark and light wouldn't mix anywhere except in a Japanese street.

Kou and Shirogane, of course, would say that Ryuuko _didn't_ have to die. But Shirogane would also have been hiding a tiny guilty glee that, with Ryuuko dead, he just had to find the other again and make sure there wasn't much question anymore on who was on top. Preferably by keeping the other ignorant. And visibly younger than he was. Ryuuko would have been dismayed if he found out about that, but then he was safely dead.

At the time before he died though, Ryuuko himself could have given a really good reason why he had to die if someone had wanted to contemplate his death with him. But to say Ryuuko himself had wanted to die isn't accurate, because what he had wanted was a vacation. But that's probably getting a bit ahead of the story. Let's start somewhere closer to the beginning.

…

"He's not here?"

In the garden beyond the serious Sawaki, Ryuuko could see Kou playing a game of tag with a hakua. "No."

"He's really not here?"

Ryuuko clamped down on the urge to shout and settled on sighing instead, lifting his hand to rub between his brows and dispel the beginnings of a headache. From the way Sawaki's voice had lifted at the end, somewhere between a snarl and a squeal of appeal, Ryuuko could guess that he was in a state of panic. He didn't see why Sawaki had to come here and accuse him though.

"Sawaki," Ryuuko said carefully. "I'm not keeping him in a closet. Why would I want to keep him in a closet?"

Sawaki looked away and pulled at his gloves, his eyes darting around the room as if he expected to see Shirogane hiding behind one of the pillars. Ryuuko sighed again and dropped his hand over the armrest.

"Just in case," Sawaki now said. "You won't mind if I looked around your closets?"

"Please. Just go home."

"It's a pain," Sawaki said without Ryuuko's prompting. "I bring in paperwork that needs to be signed by him—just a little now and then—but he goes out and stays out and the pile on his desk gets bigger. And then one day there's no more desk. It had been swallowed up, the legs had given way, and then the king shows up and says 'Take care of this mess. It's an eyesore.' "

Ryuuko winced and straightened himself up in his seat. The actions of the Shin King affected him mainly because his desk was in a similar state of disrepair. He firmly believed that his desk was cleaner though, and he was by far more serious about his responsibilities as King. It was just that, sometimes, he grew tired and rested a bit, and things somehow ended up getting out of hand. He wondered if he should tell Sawaki about a good repairman he knew. Shin and Rei being what they were, it was hard to get ahold of someone to fix things like broken table legs. And it wasn't as if the Children could be bothered to fix things, seeing as they were mostly responsible for destroying them in the first place.

Sawaki muttered something too flat to be considered a curse and made a little bow.

"When he comes here," Sawaki said, "please tell him that the shadow world needs him to go back."

Ryuuko nodded once. "All right, _if_ he appears, that's what I'll say."

"It's never 'if,' " Sawaki said darkly, and disappeared out the open door before Ryuuko could say anything else.

Ryuuko pinched the bridge of his nose. Finally he risked looking out at the garden. Kou wasn't there anymore. He stared, disconcerted, at the fat white worms like fingers wriggling from one of the potted palms. Hakua, from the looks of it, twitching away the last vestiges of its existence, but Ryuuko was more concerned with who had probably vandalized his plants.

"Kou!" He called, and heard Kou's springy voice directly behind him: "What is it, Ryuuko?"

Ryuuko's great dignity checked him from jumping a good five feet away at least. Instead, he turned around and tried not to shake too much.

"I told you not to touch the palms. And please. Don't play with the hakuas."

Kou arranged his face in something that was certainly not guilt. "But you never play with me. You're always busy—"

"I'm a King," Ryuuko said. The explanation sounded more defensive than he felt, so he added: "Affairs of the state—"

Kou snorted out a hiss like a hakua when one accidentally steps on its tail. The sound was strange enough to make Ryuuko forget justifying not playing with Kou, and instead make him stare at the sad white bundle attached to his leg that Kou had become.

"It's unfair! Why can you be with Shirogane-san but not with me?"

"I said affairs of the state…" Ryuuko trailed off and colored an embarrassing pink. He coughed and looked away. "…State business."

Kou tightened his hold on Ryuuko's leg until Ryuuko was almost sure something must have snapped. He pushed Kou's face as far away from him as he could without hurting him, but Kou remained attached to his leg.

"Why are you always with Shirogane-san anyway? And then if he's there, you won't even let me curl up at your feet and I even have to leave the room. It's too cold! Why does Shirogane-san get special treatment?"

Lord of Light, Ryuuko thought. Oh his forefathers. His unborn descendants. His leg was _dying_.

"We're working on a treaty," Ryuuko said, and it was only the fact that he was King and should act like one which kept him from sounding desperate. He couldn't stop from desperately attempting to push Kou away from him though. "I believe there's a way for dark and light to exist in harmony and peace. That's why—"

"Lies," Kou cried into his coat. "Ryuuko's a liar. You just don't want to play with me!"

Ryuuko paused, distracted by his own discomfort and Kou being visibly upset. Well, if the truth didn't work, it was time for the diplomatic solution and lie.

"We are certainly," Ryuuko said, "not secretly building a rocket ship from a chemistry set."

He felt Kou stiffen up and his hold relax a bit. It was all the prompt he needed to elaborate. "And I definitely do not think that it is highly entertaining to create a marvelous, colorful piece of amazing science that can take us to the stars, where we can live on love and star dust and coconut juice. And this spaceship is definitely not hidden somewhere in a secret place," Ryuuko concluded. He bit back a smile at the look on Kou's face. Oh, he had him all right.

Kou let go of his leg. "Can such a thing exist?"

Ryuuko smiled faintly and shook his head. "Definitely not," he said, and at once Kou darted away to find it. Ryuuko stood for several seconds more until Kou disappeared, and then slid down on the ground beside his potted palm without the palm now, the hakua's spider-thin legs still pumping away. Ryuuko pulled the hakua out, brought it to the edge of the garden and released it. The hakua slid over the wall in a line of disturbed moss and was gone.

"Why didn't you say you wanted a rocket ship?" Shirogane asked.

"Because I don't want one." Ryuuko looked up so Shirogane would see his frown from his section of wall. "Why are you here?"

Shirogane slid down from the wall, more graceful than the hakua had been, and shrugged his shoulders lightly. He looked very proud and stiff in his dark robe, and although his face and all the rest of him looked very delicate—Ryuuko had once made the mistake of observing he looked like a girl and regretted it—Shirogane's rough-edged drawl sounded like something he might have copied off a gangster rather than a king.

"We should be discussing the treaty, shouldn't we?" Shirogane asked. He looked at Ryuuko across him for a moment, and then his eyes trailed down to where he saw Ryuuko looking, and he snarled. Probably a few inches of one thick skein of shiny silver hair had gotten soaked in a puddle of water. Shirogane lifted his hair out and inspected it. The silver drooped, sad and wet, in his hand.

"Your garden has damaged my hair," Shirogane declared haughtily. "I demand recompense. For a fault like this from an object of yours, a kiss from you would be appropriate. I'll allow it since we share the same status."

"It's your own fault," Ryuuko said. "You keep your hair a foot too long."

"Ryuuko," Shirogane said. "Do you want me to destroy your stupid plants?"

Ryuuko flinched. But he was a king, after all, and couldn't allow himself to be threatened like this. "Don't you want that treaty signed?" he asked, keeping his ground in front of the Shin King. "Because an attack on my garden would be an uncalled-for aggression on the part of the shadow world. It would be seen as a declaration of war, Shirogane."

Shirogane's voice was cold as ice, but Ryuuko was used to it to the point that it would have surprised him if it hadn't been. "It made my hair wet."

Ryuuko sighed. "For now, why don't we just go in? I'll get you a towel. That's enough compensation, right?"

Ryuuko had turned and so missed the other's expression completely. But Shirogane's silence did make him look back, because he was afraid it meant Shirogane didn't appreciate the offer of towels and was about to run him through. He was about to say he was going to make sure they were really fluffy, when Shirogane said: "I can go in?"

"What's wrong?" Ryuuko asked. "You let yourself in my castle anyway, even if I don't ask you to."

"But now you're asking me to."

"Yes." Ryuuko paused. Shirogane's face was carefully blank, and Ryuuko wondered if he had somehow insulted the other, though he didn't see either how he could have.

"Um," Ryuuko said. "Is getting a towel all right with you?" But Shirogane, he saw, was already lifting the rest of his hair protectively over his shoulder. He went past Ryuuko to the door, where he stopped to look back at Ryuuko with one of his small glacial frowns.

"You're slow, Ryuuko."

Ryuuko sighed. "I guess that's a yes."


	2. The Players II

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Monochrome Factor or any of its characters.

**Author's Note:** Is hakua in plural hakuas? Is Shisui's hair as long as the other Kings'? What did Ryuuko's other Children even look like? For such questions, the only answer can be: I don't know. I'll see if something turns up in the next manga volume when they release it, but right now Shisui's a big blank with a question mark and Ryuuko's Children are four more blanks…so yeah, they don't appear here. But really, having fewer characters is a relief, because this chapter's already messy. And long. …Do you people like Lulu? No one seems to; it's kind of sad… Heh, who am I kidding? I like Aya better myself. (She doesn't appear here either.)

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The King is Dead, Long Live the King

Chapter Two: The Players II

Being previously human was a source of great anguish for Homurabi. Among other things, it meant his Children had an excuse to be all buddy-buddy with him because they were all human once, and that he himself did not have the excuse of being a pure cosmic being to explain his hair, nails and clothes was the universe deciding how he should look and not just him doing cute cosplay. It meant Lulu thinking he looked better with pink lipstick and saying it, as if she was qualified to give him fashion tips and could question what color lipstick he wanted when he was a King.

And being previously human also meant he wasn't really Shirogane's little brother. But this didn't stop Homurabi from saying he was, of course, or keep him from following Shirogane around like a little brother should.

Homurabi, in fact, was a good little brother. He lived the way he thought Shirogane would have absolutely approved of (if he had been the type of person who cared); he didn't betray Shirogane's hiding places even after a session with Sawaki and his self-improvement books; and he was, for the most part, invisible. This last part was why, when Shirogane had finished glaring death at his pile of paperwork and gouging out chips of wood from his desk with a well-heeled boot, and when Shirogane went to the window, broke the latch and jumped out, Homurabi followed him and wasn't noticed at all. Homurabi wasn't very surprised at where he went, but he was very upset. In the 'Mt Fuji is blowing up, the world is ending and it's not even my fault' kind of way.

Little brothers, of course, should never hate anyone their older brothers paid too much attention to. No, they should _detest_ them, wish them real bodily harm, with lots of screaming and violence of the unenjoyable sort. And of all people he had to trust his brother to, it had to be Ryuuko. Ryuuko of the girly name and girly weapon sash thing and his girly love for everything. Ryuuko, the king who incidentally belonged to _the other side_.

Homurabi pounded his fist against Ryuuko's wall, which refused to break, uncurled his fist to inspect his nails, and breathed. He could perhaps push Ryuuko into a pond, so he'd be scolded and told to run along. Or he could do something really evil, like kill Ryuuko's little dog, for example. That way even Ryuuko would think twice before seducing his brother again.

He could just imagine the resulting scratches though, and the broken nails. He went to get Lulu.

…

It wasn't turning out to be a good day, Ryuuko reflected. Kou had been hyper all morning. Sawaki had dropped in and Shirogane not long after that. He had a headache and it wasn't even noon.

Shirogane's visits to the light world were frequent and protracted, so Ryuuko couldn't even indulge in a comfortable lie that Shirogane might leave quickly and stay away long. Being with the other was interesting but tiring. On one hand, he could talk with Shirogane about a lot of things he was curious about, like how things were in the shadow world, and how they could work on keeping the balance from falling apart. And on the other hand, though he appreciated the other being blunt with him most of the time, Ryuuko was finding it hard to keep up with Shirogane's mood swings.

Shirogane, Ryuuko now noticed, rarely blinked. It was like trying to hold the gaze of a (probably hungry) cobra. He gave up and looked over Shirogane's shoulder at the clouds floating across the window, which at least did not look at him with uncomfortably blue eyes.

And he'd only been able to find orange towels. Shirogane had silently dropped the towel on the floor and wound his hair down to drip over it. It was all strangely awkward and embarrassing.

Ryuuko risked looking over at Shirogane again. "I'm probably a poor host," he said, smiling to cover his uneasiness. "Would you like something to eat or drink?"

"No," Shirogane said, smoothing his hair out. And then: "Are you going to make something?"

"It's generally easier to do so. Hakua don't exactly make good tea."

"You can always order one of your Children."

Ryuuko felt goose bumps break out on his skin and pulled his lips in a wider smile in defense. The idea of Kou touching something clearly breakable... "I _love_ making tea."

"Like a housewife," Shirogane said.

Ryuuko was pretty much sure that Shirogane had insulted him, but he laughed and scratched the back of his head. "It's just tea," Ryuuko said. And making some, he thought silently with a tiny flicker of hope, meant he had to leave the room. Maybe he could lie down somewhere and rest a while before anyone seriously missed him.

"Tea," Shirogane repeated flatly. For a moment, Ryuuko thought that Shirogane must know what was going on and was not about to let him leave, but then Shirogane turned his head away slightly and snorted into his hand. It was a dismissal, if a rude one. Ryuuko crossed the room to the door, feeling Shirogane's eyes on him the whole time. Closing the door behind him, he almost cried in happy relief.

Then he turned and collided with Kou.

"Ryuuko," Kou whined, massaging his red nose. He looked like he would cry too. Ryuuko stepped backward and leaned against the door. If it was going to take a while, he could at least be comfortable while he listened.

"What is it, Kou?"

"Can you give me a hint on where the secret place with the rocket ship that doesn't exist is?" Kou asked in one excited breath, making Ryuuko blink.

"Er," said Ryuuko, who had forgotten about it until then.

"Just one hint, Ryuuko," Kou pleaded. "One little hint. Like, is it far, or near? Dark or light? Is it really high up, or hidden under the ground? It would help if I knew things like that."

"Er."

"Hey, hey, how about this? We can go look for it together!"

"No, Kou," Ryuuko quickly said. "I don't think—"

"Only you already know where it is, so I'll really be the one looking for it. We'll walk around and when we're getting nearer you'll say 'hot,' and 'cold' if we're going the wrong way…"

Ryuuko pulled at the neck of his shirt and looked around. To his left, the hallway led to the great hall, to the right was another set of rooms and beyond that, the kitchen. It was too far with Kou latched onto him, but if he used his excuse to make some tea— No, he wasn't even going to let Kou know he was going to make tea.

"What about now," Kou asked expectantly, "Is it hot or cold?"

If he was able to distract Kou for a second, he could make a run for the great hall and get himself lost in some other room. With that, he probably had fifteen blissful minutes by himself before Kou found him. Ryuuko pulled in a breath and bent his knees in preparation to run. Before he could, though, he heard the knob turning behind him and the door creak ominously open. Ryuuko mentally slapped himself; he'd forgotten about Shirogane.

Without thinking, his arm shot out, fingers clammy with sweat under the thick glove closing hard over the knob and yanking it back toward him. He could just imagine Shirogane's surprised face on the other side, turning into a mask of wrath as the door shut.

"What is it? Is something—"

Ryuuko threw himself at Kou, who swallowed the rest of what he was about to say in the face of a delightfully strange-acting Ryuuko clinging to him. Ryuuko started to push him away down to the hall.

"Cold, Kou," Ryuuko almost shouted into Kou's ear. "Completely Baltic!"

"Yeah, I thought so. It can't be inside, right? Or how can you test if it flies? …What's the matter, Ryuuko? Your face is all pale."

"Must be because it's cold…"

…

"He's too cold," Homurabi said with a great deal of wringing of hands, while the girl beside him alternately slurped from her large-sized strawberry shake and patted Homurabi's back with her cool, sticky fingers. Homurabi absently slapped her hand away, and repeated: "Too cold."

"It can't be helped, Homurabi-chan." The girl flipped her hair over her shoulder and beamed at him like a too-shiny light bulb. "It's like Shirogane-sama's selling point. That and he's handsome, of course."

Homurabi spent ten seconds glaring at nothing. And then he swiped the shake from the girl's hand and threw the small umbrella at her. "Don't call me 'chan.' If you call me 'chan' again, Lulu, I'll tell Sawaki you have nude photos of him."

"Well, putting that aside," said Lulu peaceably, "He's like that to everybody anyway, so you shouldn't mind it too much."

"Not to _him_." Homurabi punctuated the statement with a loud slurp from Lulu's shake.

"Come on, Homurabi-ch—Homurabi-sama," Lulu chirped out, doing a little dance. "The exception proves the rule. And if you really want to be cool, you don't think about things like that."

Homurabi's fingers twitched violently over the cup and crushed it, splattering them both with pink ice shavings. Lulu let out a distressed yell, somehow also dodging the cup Homurabi threw at her even though her eyes were screwed shut. For a moment he pondered how Lulu's breasts could be so aerodynamic, and then his mind hurriedly retreated to the matter at hand, and he stood up.

"Whether or not I'm cool is not the issue here," Homurabi screeched. "I don't get what my brother sees in him. I mean, Ryuuko's all noble and kind and _bland_. The only thing that's not bland about him is when my brother gets him to eat extra spicy food. I guess he thinks that when that guy's eating them, and his cheeks are red, and his eyes getting all luminous and wet, that he looks good enough to eat himself. Or something."

Lulu brought her hand up to hide a snicker. Homurabi noticed, and thought perhaps he needed to give more proof on just how bland Ryuuko really was: "He wakes up by himself too. His attendants don't have to shake him awake, which means he's robbing them of their job and covering it up as being responsible. And he keeps a planner with notes on it like 'Kou's birthday. Don't forget or he'll sulk for a week.' Or what tea leaves to use in what day. How much _worse_ can you fail as a person?"

Lulu looked up at him with a swift predatory incline of her head, furrowing her brows and at the same time smiling. Homurabi paused in his rant to give her an apprehensive glare, realizing belatedly that 1) he was talking to a girl, 2) girls had the strangest sixth sense that sometimes made no sense at all, and 3) he was talking to _Lulu_. Lulu, who thought Sawaki was hot, which definitely proved that even for a girl, Lulu was weird.

Lulu assumed an innocent expression, twirling her hair around one finger. "Why do you even know he has a planner?"

"I'm guessing," said Homurabi smoothly.

"It's so amazingly vivid. For a guess."

"What are you trying to say? That I rummaged through his things while he was asleep in his room?" Homurabi made a rude noise. "Like I'd do something like that."

"You're imagining things," Lulu said. "I'll never say anything like that, Homurabi-sama."

Homurabi felt as if he'd somehow been manipulated, but just gritted his teeth in favor of more important things. "I called you because I want something done, Lulu. Now."

Lulu moaned a complaint, flopping back on her plushy seat and letting her shoes thud heavily on the floor. Then she drummed her feet on the floor. Homurabi merely raised his brows at this childish display and crossed his arms in impatience.

"Well?"

"I guess." Lulu sighed dramatically. "If I have to."

Homurabi smiled. "That's what I wanted to hear."

…

The problem with kokuchi was that they operated on instinct, without the individual complicated reasoning of humans or pure cosmic beings. In short, they were dumb. Kokuchi even had to be specially trained to distinguish between a washing machine and a real hole to the light that had to be sealed. About their hissing that sometimes kept Sawaki up all night, nothing could be done. Except sometimes someone would inevitably blow up and exterminate them, or more kindly set them loose outside, where they proceeded to clog as many washing machines as they could find in shadow people's houses.

Shirogane had delegated the unsavory task of looking after the kokuchi to Sawaki, who took the job with stoic, elder brotherly grimness. He marked in the calendar when they had to be fed or walked outside, putting in, even, the exact time when everything should be done, and which Child was responsible for what that day. All very neat and in perfect order. If the ingrates bothered to follow it anyway.

For Sawaki, everything was about order. Or at least an order that he understood. He didn't care if light or dark was winning, or if they were getting everything balanced out, as long as they did things in a nice, orderly way. Starting from following his prescribed schedule. He wished Shirogane would start doing his duty and sit down to some work. Bullying the Rei King or making friends with him was something that only had to be done on the side, when he had time for it. The time for it, if Sawaki had had his say, was once every fortnight, which incidentally was how frequent Shirogane and Homurabi polished their nails. And Sawaki was already being overly gracious. With the way things were, maybe Shirogane shouldn't be allowed to leave the shadow world even once a year.

In the hall, he saw Homurabi and Lulu doing a bad job of sneaking out, considering that Lulu was whispering sneaking sound effects and giggling, and Homurabi kept snarling for quiet. Sawaki frowned in disapproval. Shirogane was obviously a bad influence on Homurabi, and he should probably have a long talk with Homurabi about his brother complex and how he should try going beyond it. It was affecting his ability to lead.

Sawaki went sighing to Shirogane's room. It was one of the few places he had saved to check for last because Shirogane was rarely inside. He knocked. He did not, in fact, expect an answer, but it didn't hurt to be courteous in case the other was there.

Sawaki was already pushing the door open when he heard the imperious "Come in." He jumped, tidied up his suit before pushing the door completely open. Shirogane was standing with his back to the door, looking out the window.

"You're here," Sawaki couldn't stop from exclaiming in pure disbelief. "Why aren't you at the Rei King's palace?"

He saw Shirogane's frown reflected in the glass. "You will refrain from speaking about miracles," said Shirogane testily. He turned around and looked at Sawaki. "I have a favor to ask."

Sawaki recovered enough from the minor shock to sigh and shake his head. "Before that, how about getting some work done? You need to sign a lot of things by now. They're talking about this kokuchi race you're supposedly sponsoring—"

"Where are the papers for that?"

Sawaki stopped. "Well, I don't have them with me right now—"

Shirogane turned around again. "Bring them."

Sawaki stared, and then remembered to push his jaw up. Shirogane sounded serious. Sawaki didn't quite grasp what was happening, but if Shirogane was about to actually fulfill his duties as King, then he was more than happy to oblige.

In his excitement, Sawaki forgot himself badly. He snapped his fingers, forming the image of all the paper piled on Shirogane's desk in his mind and sending the silent order to the kokuchi to get them. A little later, he heard the horrible thump-scrape that could only be the desk being pushed down the hallway, and was awarded seconds later with the desk crashing through the door. Shirogane didn't even move. Sawaki hastily gathered up the fallen paper and started shoving them back on top of the desk.

Shirogane went towards the desk, lightly pushed Sawaki out of the way and arranged the papers neatly himself. Then, when he seemed satisfied with it, he pulled out his sword and stabbed down at the pile.

"What are you doing?" Sawaki cried.

"Signing them," Shirogane said, his voice flat with boredom. "Don't worry. They'll know it's my sword since they'll feel the King's aura from it. I don't have to read them when you've looked them through."

"Please read them first! And we have stamps for that." Sawaki brought up the stamp and its red ink pad above his head in utter dismay. "Stamps!"

There was a sound like a deep-throated moan, and then the legs of Shirogane's desk gave out again, releasing the paper in a cascade like white confetti around them. Slowly, Sawaki brought his arms down.

Shirogane turned away, back to the window. "Take care of this mess," he said. And added: "It's an eyesore."


	3. The Game

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Monochrome Factor or any of its characters.

**Author's Note:** What's Homurabi's weapon? Resolve! (All right, I don't know.) He spawns kokuchi from his arms? Somehow that sounds R-rated to me, though he did do it… He hid behind Hiryu too, but who can blame him? She has nice legs. I enjoyed writing this chapter because of the fight scene, but I feel like I kind of neglected that it's supposed to be humor somewhere in the middle. For what it's worth, I think the fight scene's a bit understandable… Monochrome Factor has a game, but it's the dating kind, and you play as a girl. You can date Aya at least, but a fighting game would have been really nice, don't you think?

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The King is Dead, Long Live the King

Chapter Three: The Game

It was probably early afternoon, not exactly the time for stealth and evil plotting, but so far no one seemed to have seen them yet.

Homurabi's grin almost cracked his lipstick. He glanced back at the girl with him, who was crinkling her nose and scuffing a brown patch of grass with her shoe.

"All right, Lulu?"

"No," said the girl, not even bothering to think about it first. Homurabi frowned.

"You don't say 'no' to a King," Homurabi seethed. "Not unless he asked, 'Am I wrong?' Then you're free to say: no."

"No," Lulu said, louder this time, and Homurabi looked around to make sure no one had noticed.

"Look, Lulu," Homurabi explained as magnanimously as he could to his unreasonable Child. "I need a boost. You just kneel there for a moment, I'll step on your back—"

Lulu bit her bottom lip as if holding back tears. "That's the problem, Homurabi-sama. My dress would get dirty, won't it? If anyone's going to step on me, it should at least be Shirogane-sama. He has nice shoes," she added as an afterthought, doing her small 'moe' dance of clasping her hands together and wriggling from side to side.

"Lulu," Homurabi said warningly. When her reply was a soft unrelenting whine, Homurabi huffed and went to the wall, deciding to risk getting grime under his nails than have to deal with her in a tantrum. Cursing, he pulled himself up, slipping several times until he was able to hook his leg over the wall. Behind him, Lulu shouted encouragements, and Homurabi glared. She was going to blow their cover! And his clothes were heavy, dammit. Even his hair was weighing him down. It took him a couple more seconds struggling with the skirts of his robe before he was able to sit on the wall like a fat blackbird.

And then Lulu jumped over him to land in the garden itself with hardly any impact at all. She brushed her hair from her shoulder with the back of a hand, and then spun around with a shouted 'Yay!' to give Homurabi a wave and a 100-watt smile. Homurabi ground his teeth together. One day, he was going to learn how to hover, the people beneath him who might see just what he wore under his robe be damned. He was going to fly and show Lulu what he thought about her playing up. He balanced precariously on the wall for a moment, then jumped down.

He and Lulu proceeded to hide behind a bush.

"So what's the plan, Homurabi-sama?"

Homurabi tried to flatten down his hair a bit more so it didn't show above the bush. Not that he was being very successful with it. "We grab Ryuuko's annoying dog," Homurabi said, "tie him up, and bring him back with us. Then we'd decide what to do with him. Like shave him. Or paint him pink and then send him back, whichever sounds more evil."

"Hmm," Lulu droned, and Homurabi wished she would stop pretending she had a brain to think with. "If you say so. But if he's annoying, are you sure Ryuuko-sama would actually miss him?"

"He will," Homurabi declared. "Don't be tricked, Lulu. The way that guy is towards my brother and that dog of his is a ruse. He acts all unsure and uncomfortable when he's with them, but he's really hiding a shy, proud ego that doesn't want to lose things."

"Eh?" Lulu exclaimed. "No way!" And then after a pause: "What did Sawaki-chan make you read?"

Homurabi blushed in what he told himself was rage, not embarrassment. "It was a book on human psychology, all right?"

"But Ryuuko-sama's not human…"

"It applies," Homurabi said stubbornly. "It's not like he's an anteater, is he?" He crouched closer to the ground, motioning for Lulu to do the same. Lulu fluffed out her skirt a bit more instead, and slightly bowed her head.

"Here he comes."

Around twenty feet away, Ryuuko and Kou appeared out of the front door, Ryuuko with his hands on Kou's shoulders, pushing Kou ahead of him. Homurabi pulled at Lulu's skirt in triumph. "See? He's all clingy to him."

"He looks a bit…peaky though," Lulu observed. After a while more of nothing seeming to happen, Lulu huffed, crossing her arms under her breasts. "And I thought if I came with you, I'll see Shirogane-sama."

"He's there," Homurabi whispered back, glad to be able to show his superiority in matters concerning his elder brother. He pointed to one window, where Shirogane was looking out slit-eyed at Ryuuko and Kou. Ryuuko and Kou, of course, were completely oblivious of him and of the two new intruders in the garden.

"Oh, it's Shirogane-sama!" Lulu exclaimed happily. Homurabi covered her mouth.

"You'll give us away," Homurabi said angrily, looking up at Shirogane's window. But Shirogane had retreated further into the room, only the back of his head visible now. Lulu made a sound of disappointment. Homurabi glanced quickly back at Ryuuko and Kou. They were talking, but it was too far to hear anything. Homurabi dashed quickly to hide behind another bush, Lulu hesitating only a moment before following after him.

"If I have to decide," Ryuuko was saying. "Warm. I think."

"Lukewarm warm?" Kou dashed away from Ryuuko's side and almost straight into the bush Homurabi and Lulu were crouched behind. Homurabi linked hands with Lulu and screamed internally, but three feet away from them, Kou stopped to look back at Ryuuko, who appeared to be much closer to the door than he previously was.

"What about now?" Kou asked.

Ryuuko seemed to frown slightly. He wiped at his brow. "I have to think," he said. "Hot." And then Ryuuko added, his voice still low but with a new bright and hopeful note: "It might be beyond the garden, over the wall, seventy kilometers from here to the north?"

Kou looked up at the sky, then glanced over at the wall. Ryuuko's shoulders, Homurabi noticed, had tensed up in expectation. Kou started to sprint for the wall, but then stopped and laughed.

"Stupid Ryuuko," he said. "It can't be that far. Or how can you and Shirogane-san go there everyday?"

Homurabi almost stood up from their hiding place at that, except Lulu had anticipated this and pulled him back, patting him soothingly on the back as Ryuuko muttered: "I…I don't go there everyday."

"Don't tell me…" Homurabi said, and Lulu continued for him in gleeful shock: "A forbidden tryst?"

Kou scratched idly at the back of his ear. "Ne, Ryuuko," he began, withdrawing from near their bush back to where Ryuuko stood. Grimly, Homurabi crawled over to a closer bush, Lulu tiptoeing after. They waited. Lulu swallowed.

"I don't really mind that the two of you kept it a secret for so long," Kou declared. "If you want, I won't tell anyone about it."

"Kou," Ryuuko said. He used the blank, brittle paper voice of people who were either getting angry or getting ready to cry in frustration, but Homurabi was too busy absorbing what Kou seemed to be implying to care. Homurabi couldn't believe it. Or, well, he could. Maybe he should have supervised his brother more, and now, from what Kou was saying, he was too late, and Ryuuko had already corrupted his brother. That could be the only explanation.

"But I want in on it too," Kou continued in a happy burble. "The next time you and Shirogane try it, I'm going to be there, okay? I promise I won't be noisy, and I won't chase Shirogane-san out either. I can even help!"

Homurabi choked on his tongue. He coughed, squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed at his throat, while beside him he heard Lulu squeal softly behind her hands.

"Ne, Ryuuko," Kou wheedled. "Will you let me help?"

Homurabi looked up again in time to see Ryuuko sigh and scratch at his cheek with one finger. His cheeks were lightly flushed with appropriate embarrassment. "You really, really want that rocket ship, don't you?"

With a growl, Homurabi stood up, pointing dramatically with one finger at Ryuuko and Kou's general direction. The two turned to look at him, Kou with a slightly curious rise of his brows, and Ryuuko's face startled expressionless.

"You!" Homurabi shrieked. His voice and his accusing finger shook. "What is this? Is rocket ship your code now for se-…se-…"

Lulu appeared beside Homurabi in a flurry of leaves and black skirts. "Ryuuko-sama's a perv!"

At that statement, more clearly understandable than Homurabi's angry spluttering, Ryuuko's lips hinged slightly open. Then slowly he shook his head. He looked at Homurabi. "You're the other king of the Shin, am I right?" Ryuuko asked, raising one placatory hand in front of him. "Aren't you misunderstanding something?"

"What did I misunderstand?" Homurabi screamed, pulling at the hair hanging over his ears in barely restrained indignation. "That you were about to pull my brother into some kinky play? I don't think so!"

Before Ryuuko could say anything else in his defense, Kou, who had been pouting for a while, spoke up. "You just want the rocket ship for yourself, don't you?"

That was it. Homurabi growled out a battle cry, and then daintily stepped back and clacked his nails. "Lulu, do it."

…

Sawaki broke the short silence. "All right, Shirogane," he said. He pushed the remnants of Shirogane's desk closer together with a foot, watching the cloud of dust choke up spiders and cobwebs and a gum wrapper or two. "You need to speak, right? What is it?"

Shirogane kept his gaze trained out the window. And then he said in a low murmur Sawaki wouldn't have heard if he hadn't been listening closely: "What do you think about marriage?"

Sawaki stared at Shirogane's back. And then he laughed disbelievingly. "You want to get rid of me," Sawaki said. Instead of answering, Shirogane strode over to a chair and sat on it sullenly. Sawaki had a flash of understanding. "You mean you," he said, and paused to consider. "This is a grave matter, Shirogane."

"Why?"

"It might not be the time for it," Sawaki suggested carefully. What Sawaki did not say was how much he'd want to retire if it happened. If Shirogane married someone every bit like him, and besides sired other little Shiroganes, Sawaki wouldn't be able to bear it. There was just so much a shadow can do before even he had to give up.

"But I think it's perfect," Shirogane said, lazily supporting his chin with one hand and crossing his leg. "I only wanted to ask you to take care of the arrangements."

"Won't you reconsider? Getting married so soon…"

Shirogane looked at him. "I've been living forever. I think that means I have waited. And even from a political point of view, I am bound to gain something from this marriage. The alliance with light will be sealed by this. It's foolproof. And simple." Shirogane uncrossed his legs and rose from his chair. "Three days should be more than enough for you, right?"

"Wait," Sawaki said. "You're marrying someone from _the light world_? Doesn't that actually complicate things?"

"Sawaki," Shirogane said, and Sawaki lifted his hands up helplessly, dropped them, and sighed. He clapped his hands once, and several kokuchi materialized to lug bits of table out the door. The signed papers Sawaki held close to himself, unwilling to let the kokuchi handle what he would probably never be able to make Shirogane look at again. Unless having a wife would make Shirogane stay in his palace for once. At least until he got bored with her and decided to go play at the Rei King's again.

"For the gown," Sawaki finally said, "I suppose we should go for white on this one. Why not let Lulu pick something for the happy bride?"

Shirogane looked down at his nails. "He won't appreciate a gown, I think."

"…"

"…"

Shuffling the papers, Sawaki said faintly: "He?"

"Who did you think I was talking about?" Shirogane asked, frowning.

"Usually, when one gets married, it's with a member of the opposite sex. Though I don't know about pure cosmic beings." No little Shiroganes then, but with ten Children between them. Sawaki felt the premonition of a hundred headaches to come building in his temples.

"Have you even," Sawaki said at length, "asked him?"

"One moment," said Shirogane, walking back towards the window. Once there, he appeared to dissolve upwards in a trail of blue-black ink, his cloak flapping like a dozen small angry wings. And then the construct Shirogane had apparently created of himself was gone.

"I can't believe Shirogane's all grown up," Sawaki mused, looking down at the documents in his hands. There was one unscratched page, and Sawaki stared at the page numbly. He gave a weak laugh. "He left one out..."

…

After severing the connection with his construct in the shadow world, Shirogane wandered out of the room Ryuuko had left him in, and went to another one he knew had a window which looked out into the garden. There he spied on Ryuuko, not liking how he was wasting his time indulging Kou in his stupid game.

He hadn't thought much into the fact that he had to ask Ryuuko, since his primary motive had been to take Ryuuko away from there, and it hadn't seemed important to know first what Ryuuko thought about it. His logic told him Ryuuko _had_ to go along with it. He wanted his peace, and it wasn't like he hated Shirogane. The problem was his Children. But Kou was dumb; if Shirogane threw Kou some shiny object, perhaps a kaleidoscope, he would not have any more trouble from Kou. Of course, there was still Ryuuko's other Children, not that he saw them much when they didn't have missions outside of brief meetings. Perhaps he did have to ask Ryuuko first after all.

Shirogane did not see Homurabi or Lulu. But, walking down the hall, he heard a great deal of squeals and angry screaming that could only be Homurabi and Lulu. And Kou, too, shouting rude things. Shirogane descended into the garden and squinted sullenly through the haze of too bright afternoon light.

Lulu had her whip out and was swinging it in quick, dangerous arcs, her face oddly serious. Ryuuko was dodging her attacks, parrying it when he had no choice with his scythe and then leaping back away from her, flicking the scythe back so that the long sash from his weapon, which Shirogane now noticed was wound around Homurabi, also pulled Homurabi along with him. Kou scampered after. Homurabi wriggled around in his bonds to free his arms, and he and Kou started to claw at each other like a pair of irate cats.

"Do you think I'm leaving my brother with that long-haired gerbil?" Homurabi asked around a split lip. Kou narrowed his eyes, then started to step viciously down on Homurabi's hair.

"Who's the gerbil?"

At that moment, Lulu spotted Shirogane standing in the entrance and screamed in happy welcome, hugging the handle of her whip to her breasts. "Shirogane-sama!"

"Why are you stopping?" Homurabi now shouted over at Lulu. "That's it! Those pictures are so reaching Sawaki!"

Lulu looked mournful. "Just when Shirogane-sama appeared," she muttered, bringing her whip back to violent life. The whip caught Kou around the middle and flung him hard against a wall. Another flick of the whip and she had Kou trussed up like a chicken. Kou squirmed, then started rolling on the ground.

"Ah, it tickles! It stings! Ha ha…Make it…stop…"

Shirogane walked out into the garden.

Somehow, Lulu still fought with the remaining length of her whip, and kept Ryuuko from getting close enough to Kou to untie him. At that point, Homurabi also extricated himself from the sash and ran at Ryuuko, who blocked his blow with the handle of his scythe, twisted around to hit Homurabi across the face with the blunt side of the scythe head, and then jumped back. He adjusted his hold on the handle and leaned closer toward the ground, raising the scythe behind him. He was about to leap when Shirogane brought his hand down on his shoulder to get his attention, and Ryuuko let out his breath in a sigh and looked back.

"Shirogane," Ryuuko said. "Tea is going to be delayed."

Several paces ahead, Homurabi was slapping away Lulu's supporting arm to stand on his own. He straightened his clothes. Kou was still rolling on the ground, letting out an occasional yelp or giggle.

"This is your fault," Ryuuko told Shirogane. "Or mine. I'm not sure whose exactly."

"Ryuuko." Shirogane paused. "I have to ask you something."

"What?"

Shirogane breathed in slowly.

"What do you think about marriage?"

Ryuuko blocked a whip lash with his arm, brought his shaking arm down. He slashed down with the scythe, sending a wave cutting across earth, rock and grass towards Lulu and Homurabi, who quickly flung themselves away. Ryuuko rested the butt of his scythe on the ground and turned slightly to stare at Shirogane.

"Marriage," Ryuuko repeated in a soft murmur of thought. "You're getting married?" Then he said, warmly: "That's nice, Shirogane."

"It's okay?"

"It's not like you need my permission on this," Ryuuko said, avoiding Homurabi's punch by leaping into the air. He spun his scythe out and managed to cut Lulu's whip. "I'll even send a gift." Ryuuko flicked his weapon again to hurl Kou with the sash into the air in front of him. He sliced with his scythe, and Kou, finally freed, fell ungracefully onto a potted palm.

"How does a trained hakua sound? It can fly, and it makes cute noises when you prod its back."

"Can't all hakua fly? And, Ryuuko. It will die in the shadow world."

"Will it?" Ryuuko asked distractedly. Lulu, mad at her broken weapon, had cut a tear on the ground, and several kokuchi were crawling out. Ryuuko slapped them back in with the wide flat of the scythe blade until he could lean down and pull the tear closed. "Something else then. There must be—" Ryuuko threw himself back from another punch from Homurabi. "—some details you still need to take care of about the marriage, right?" He risked a short smiling glance at Shirogane. "Shouldn't you be heading back?"

"I guess," Shirogane said. He started to walk away, and then stopped. "I don't think you'd actually like to, but just in case…"

"What is it?" Ryuuko asked.

"In the ceremony," Shirogane said, "do you want to wear a gown?"

"Yes. That's a good idea, Shirogane," Ryuuko said, getting ready to slash out with his scythe again. Then he halted, lost his footing and stabbed on the ground instead. He glanced up at Shirogane.

"What?" Three voices asked in unison: Kou, Lulu and Homurabi. Lulu, the first to recover, let out a happy squeal. Homurabi broke into tears.

"Shirogane," Kou said, dangerously low. "What is this?"

Ryuuko said, slowly: "I think I'm beginning to understand."

"Maybe you should go back with me for now," Shirogane said. "So you can accustom yourself to the air in the shadow world."

Ryuuko lowered his scythe, looking over to one side. "Shirogane…"

Kou growled, and sprang. Ryuuko looked up in surprise, but caught Kou in the ankle before he could finish his course towards Shirogane.

"_Don't_, Kou." Ryuuko held Kou in the air until he stopped struggling, and then let him down.

Kou sat on the ground. "Ryuuko," he whispered brokenly, his hands curling into claws in the ground. "Ryuuko…"

"We're just going talk about this." Ryuuko knelt beside Kou, putting his scythe down to grasp Kou's shoulders. "Calm down, okay?"

"Hmph," said Shirogane. Kou shot him a glare, then bowed his head and wiped at his face.

"Ryuuko, you idiot!" Too quick for anyone to react, Kou slammed a fist into Ryuuko's face and extended his belts out. Ryuuko recovered enough to keep himself from getting thrown far by grabbing at the length of one of Kou's belts, while Kou crouched close to the ground to deliver what appeared to be a strong attack.

Shirogane frowned. If Kou was going to attack him seriously, then he no longer needed to tolerate Kou. And he hit Ryuuko after all. No one had the right to do that. He brought out his sword and started to gather the dark energy on the blade. But Kou, Shirogane noticed, was already staggering, barely keeping himself up under the weight of his own violent, unstable aura. Lulu must have drained a considerable amount of his power earlier in their fight. Not that it was going to stop Shirogane from making jerky of him.

Shirogane swung. The force should have thrown Kou clear across the garden and through the wall, to wake up several days later if he was fortunate. But before it could connect with Kou, Ryuuko, by accident or design, leaped down in front of him.

Ryuuko had been facing Kou when he landed, but now he turned, looked at the attack Shirogane had released, and materialized his scythe into his hand, still too late to put up any kind of defense. He shoved Kou out of the way. The arc of power, crackling with the dark energy Shirogane had charged into it, slammed into Ryuuko, who barely had time to stare in disbelief at his own shocked face reflected on the blade of his scythe before he was thrown into his garden wall.

The impact was too much for the wall. It collapsed.

Lulu winced. "Ouch," she said, partly in awe, partly in real sympathy.

Ryuuko pulled himself up from the rubble. His face, rather than hurt, was bewildered. And then he crumpled in an unconscious heap. Beside him, his scythe dematerialized in motes of light.

Homurabi and Lulu stared at the fallen Rei King. And then, as one, they turned to look at Shirogane.

"Don't say anything, you damned brats," Shirogane said.

**

* * *

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**Author's End Note:** Let's talk attribute a bit. Lulu's whip, for those who don't know, has the ability to rob people it comes into contact with of their strength. So when Ryuuko used his arm to block it at one point, he was actually being stupid. XD Ryuuko can dissolve shadows, but I'm not sure if this ability is connected to his weapon or not. (Probably not?) I guess since they're fighting in the light world, and everyone else except Kou is a shin and would therefore use shadows to fight, Ryuuko has to be the strongest player. But yeah, Ryuuko got pwned. In his defense though, he was winning before, _winning_. So, to be continued in the next chapter. Hope you enjoyed it.


	4. Interlude King for A Day

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Monochrome Factor or any of its characters.

**Author's Note: **Wrote this while listening to Lisa Komine's "Sora ni Saku" and some other stuff, but that song alone kind of stayed in my brain… And I only just realized, the people who watched the animé but didn't read the manga wouldn't know who Ryuuko is! So to those people: Read the manga. Some really wonderful people actually scanlated Monochrome Factor beyond what Tokyopop has done so far and shared it. You can get a hardcopy when it becomes available in your place (support the mangaka!), but in the meantime, there's some nice stuff waiting for you to read if you're not lazy.

**

* * *

**

The King is Dead, Long Live the King

Chapter Four: Interlude "King for a Day"

"He's not here?"

Kou shrugged, pretending nonchalance. He slouched further into Ryuuko's throne and slung one leg over the armrest, then tapped his hand against the back of the throne to emphasize its supposed vacancy. He nodded at Shirogane with a hostile wolf's grin: hard eyes and pointed teeth. "Like I told you."

"Quit lying," Shirogane said. "Bring him out or I will destroy you." And because he could rub it in the face of everyone barring Ryuuko, he added, low and glacial, "Brat."

"Hey," Kou said. He looked annoyed. He jumped out of Ryuuko's throne and stretched. Standing, there wasn't much difference between their heights. Kou could even be taller, which Shirogane found mildly irritated him.

Kou went over to one side of the throne and sat there, leaning his back comfortably against the wood with a soft sigh. And then, seeming to abruptly remember that Shirogane was there, he arranged his face in a pout and explained to the air, not looking at Shirogane: "Ryuuko's gone out."

Shirogane paused in unrecognized worry. Finally he asked: "Did he bring his other Children with him?"

"No," Kou replied, with a little surprised and curious rise at the end of the word. "He went out by himself." Then Kou gave a slight start and smiled. "It's not about any holes. This month's been pretty peaceful actually."

This made Shirogane frown, partly because he disliked being read so easily, but mostly because he had no real idea of where Ryuuko would be, outside of his palace, on an excursion that wasn't related to work. Ryuuko was always wary of causing attribute inversions, so he could hardly be walking casually around in the shadow world, but there seemed to be no place in the light world that Ryuuko might actually go to either. Unless he was in an errand that Kou was trying to hide from him.

"Where is he then?"

Kou scratched at his head. "See," he said. "I don't know. He'll be back in a day though." And then he added, lightly: "That's how it is, Shirogane-san. So you can leave now. Oh, but I'm not driving you out, okay? Although it seems you don't have a reason to stay around here anymore. The air around you is also making me feel iffy."

Only a single eye twitch betrayed the fact that Shirogane was getting angry. He took in a slow breath, and, drawing on all the patience he possessed, refrained from cheerfully murdering Kou.

"I find that hard to believe of Ryuuko," Shirogane remarked instead, knowing it would probably make Kou say something that he might otherwise keep from him. "Leaving the throne unoccupied is hardly something a King should do."

"You really shouldn't talk, Shirogane-san," Kou said. "After all, _you're_ here."

"It's irresponsible."

"But it's 'King for a Day,' " Kou said, rising to the bait. "We do this every year."

Shirogane inclined his head to one side. " 'King for a Day'?"

"Shisui-san thought it up. I guess you really wouldn't know, but it's one of the things we look forward to in the light world." Kou stood up to plop himself happily onto the throne. "It's a chance for one of the Children to be King for one whole day. We decide through a simple draw, and whoever's King gets this crown"—Kou proudly held up a small gold item— "and he can even order the other Children to do embarrassing things." Kou stopped to chuckle a bit, and to lean back with his hands laced behind his head.

"Six months ago, we had Shisui's, so it's Ryuuko's this time. I heard from Lulu that the only event over on your side is 'Kiss the Kokuchi.' How lame!"

Shirogane clenched his hand. "What would you do if something happened?" he asked, and at his tone Kou sat up properly.

"You're not thinking of invading, are you? 'Cause I'll stop you, you know, and it's not like I lost all contact with Ryuuko. We have Shisui-san over here too. Why do you think our Kings have different dates for their 'King for a Day'?"

"It's still risky," Shirogane said. "Leaving without a guard, and leaving a Child as the presiding King. Why would Ryuuko agree to this?"

Kou looked over at Shirogane. "It's not something to be mad about, is it? Or are you upset because he didn't tell you?"

Shirogane glared up at Kou's smug face. He turned around, the movement sharp and unusually awkward for him, and without another word started to walk away.

Behind him he heard Kou call out an insolent good-bye, and a short while later remark in a tone full of impish glee: "Oh, what's this?" And then: "I found a strand of Ryuuko's hair. Lucky!"

Shirogane stopped walking, and then very deliberately turned back. "Hand that over, Kou."

"What?" Kou asked, his voice a bit shaky. "Don't look like that, Shirogane-san. It's not like I was going to keep it, you know."

"Then give it here."

"But…how can I put it? It's a bit rare. You won't find any in the shower. And it's so shiny. It's a waste to throw it away…"

"Kou," Shirogane said with careful enunciation. "Don't make me any angrier than I already am now."

In the frozen silence that followed, Shirogane moved closer to pluck the strand of Ryuuko's hair from Kou's fingers. Kou let out a final whine.

"Can't I just look at it for a while?"

…

Sawaki was leading several leashed kokuchi back in when Shirogane returned to his palace in the shadow world and immediately called for a meeting. His Children went, those who didn't have missions, plus Homurabi and his own Children. Shirogane looked at them all indifferently, and then announced: "We're going to do it as well. The 'King for a Day.' "

Several Children looked at each other, confused, while others, thinking they had to, raised an equally confused cheer. Sawaki seemed about to say something, tried several times, and finally admitted, "I don't know what that is."

"I know what that is!" Lulu said, jumping on the balls of her feet, while Homurabi pressed his lips together in an uncertain scowl. "But…I'm already King. Can I still participate?"

Shirogane ignored all outbursts, and instead of answering brought out a box and shook it in their faces. "All right. Draw. Whoever gets the slip with the red dot in it is the King in my place. I'll be gone for a day. Don't call me."

Shirogane put the box down on the meeting table and walked away. He hesitated briefly at the door.

"Have fun," he said.

He shut the door.

Homurabi and the Children looked at each other.

"For now," Sawaki cut uneasily through the silence, "Why don't we try it?" He put his hand in, brought out a slip and unfolded it.

"It says 'GOON.' " Sawaki paused. He reached into his coat pocket and brought out a handkerchief to dab at his eyes. "Does he really think of me that way? Not 'loyal servant,' or 'person keeping the palace from falling apart,' or even 'daily walker of kokuchi'? Or how about 'most normal-looking Shin with a money sense who gets ordered to buy groceries because of it'?"

"It just means you're not King," Lulu said, while another Child nodded in slow thought and said: "The red dot, right?"

Someone raised a tentative question: "What if one of us pricked a finger?"

Homurabi clapped his hands, and immediately all heads turned to him. "No cheating! If I see a shin blade out, someone's head is going to be removed. Now, everyone besides Sawaki, who we all know isn't going to be King, put your hands in the box and get a slip. My brother left me in charge, so we're going to do this right."

"When did he do that?" Lulu asked, vaguely giggly, but she put her hand in the box along with everyone else. Homurabi also took a slip. If the slip declared him King, then it proved he was really meant to be Shirogane's little brother. Not that he needed something like that to prove that he was, but it didn't hurt to give everyone else proof now and then. After all, even with the lipstick and the hair, they didn't have much of a resemblance. Homurabi gulped and shut his eyes.

"No luck," one of Shirogane's Children said.

"The 'goon' slip, huh?"

Homurabi unfolded his own slip and, remembering he had to, pried his eyes open to look.

"But I'm King!" he exclaimed in offended shock.

Lulu let out a big squeal and started jumping on the table. "Guess who's King?" she asked. She attempted a pirouette, but slipped and fell, scattering a few Children from their chairs.

Sawaki groaned.

…

Shirogane patted one kokuchi absently on the nose, bringing out the strand of hair that he'd twisted into a miniature braid like a bracelet to be sniffed. One of the kokuchi tried chewing on it experimentally, and Shirogane pulled it away and gave the kokuchi a swift kick. The others nodded at the scent, a liquid bobbing of heads. They slithered away, and Shirogane followed after.

They hesitated at the boundary, sliding in the air around Shirogane in agitated rings. Shirogane opened a path to the light world, and the kokuchi trailed in like black rope released from a spool. Shirogane looked around before stepping in himself. It was a bit unexpected, but that particular boundary line, he saw, led to a school.

Shirogane had never entered a school during daytime before, and never when there was no hole to seal, so the amount of activity in the grounds surprised him. Students in jogging pants and white shirts running along a track or playing ball games, while up the buildings there were several opened windows and sultry or bored heads poking out; students with window seats stared out at the people below or at the sky, eyes glassy with blueness.

The kokuchi were getting restless, sensing all the human bodies around them with the opposite attribute. Shirogane held them in check with the order to find the Rei King. The kokuchi entered a building, gliding over stairs and down hallways. Finally, they ran ahead of Shirogane and tapped their bodies against a door, hissing. Shirogane nodded at them and, sensing their growing agitation, allowed them to go back. He pulled the door open, and the one kokuchi that had remained with him slithered in across the floor, navigating the narrow area between students' desks. About a foot behind one chair, the kokuchi pulled itself up, so for a moment it looked like a shadow that Ryuuko had impossibly cast.

Ryuuko's eyes were on the blackboard, but now he turned his head to stare at Shirogane standing before the open door. The movement completely unhurried, Ryuuko raised his hand and put one finger against his lips, smiling slightly against the finger, and Shirogane felt more than thought: 'I don't understand.'

…

Homurabi lay grumpily on the floor and tried not to meet anyone's eyes. Sawaki, leaning over him, tried not to meet _his_ eyes. Homurabi saw this with grim satisfaction, and also that Sawaki was sweating a bit. At least he wasn't the only one suffering.

"I like him," Homurabi said. "He makes me feel…urgh…" Homurabi stamped down on a blush and muttered: "Like I have a…have… a blood-pumping organ in my chest."

"Mou!" Lulu cried out in frustration, flicking her hair back and crossing her legs. She leaned back on the throne and waved a hand as if brushing flies away from her face. "Put more feeling into it, Homu-chin. That's supposed to be the good part. Don't ruin Lulu's play for everyone else!"

"That's it," Homurabi whispered. "Everyone who's seen this play is going to be erased. Sawaki, you're going to help me."

"Softly," Sawaki said, although he also nodded teary agreement to Homurabi. "We're still on, remember? Your line."

"Urgh," Homurabi said, and repeated, irately: "Like I have a heart." He looked at Sawaki. Swallowed.

"You make me feel the same."

The room was silent for exactly three seconds, and then erupted in catcalls and squeals that Homurabi felt was certainly not appropriate to the play.

…

The class ended after a few more minutes and a new teacher came in, shuffling test papers. The students put up a universal protest, slumping forward on their textbooks or leaning back in their chairs. Presently, Ryuuko stood from his desk. Shirogane had entered the room to stand silently behind Ryuuko, and now he followed after, out into the hall and up another flight of stairs to the deserted rooftop, where they were met by warm air and warm cement cooling under the cotton-wrapped pin of sun.

Shirogane stopped beside Ryuuko, who bent his arms at the elbows and leaned heavily on the railing.

"It's a nice place, isn't it?"

"I don't really care," Shirogane said with cruel truthfulness. He hadn't spared the school much thought. He looked out at the students below at their game, sweating and getting dirty, and the gates beyond, the traffic of more human bodies and the occasional cars.

"If I wore a Doppler and jumped from here, people would think I was killing myself. But then I guess I'd really split myself open."

"No," Shirogane said. "The Doppler breaks and you revert into being a Rei."

Ryuuko laughed. "You're ruining my bit of fiction, Shirogane."

Shirogane rested his hands on the rail. "Why would you even go here?"

Ryuuko frowned, and a line appeared between his clear brows and was gone. He stroked his hair from his cheek. "It's nice to do things like this once in a while," he eventually said. "At times, I think there are a lot of things I want to do. Like live, I guess. And then I get a day like this, and I don't know what to do with it. So I ended up staying here. Last time it was a sushi bar. One day isn't enough, but if I wished for a longer vacation and got it, I wonder how much would change? Maybe there's no difference between wanting to do everything and having nothing you really want to do." Ryuuko looked up at the sky. "Did you listen to the lecture before?"

"No."

"It was boring," Ryuuko said. "But I enjoyed it."

Shirogane stared at him. "Because you're a boring person," Shirogane said, and Ryuuko grinned.

"That's true too."

He tipped himself over the rail.

Shirogane moved quickly enough to grab onto Ryuuko's wrist, letting out a surprised gasp when he banged his shin sharply against the railing as Ryuuko's weight threatened to pull him along. He tightened his hold on Ryuuko, steadying himself with his other hand on the rail. Ryuuko gazed up at him, eyes wide and looking more than a little puzzled that Shirogane started to get angry again.

"What are you doing?" Shirogane asked, his voice coming out a bit rough and too loud even for his own ears. "Do you think you're proving something with this?"

Slowly, Ryuuko blinked, and then reached up to rest his free hand over the fingers of Shirogane's hand closed around his wrist in a vice. "If you let go," Ryuuko said, "I promise I won't splatter."

"Like hell."

"Shirogane," Ryuuko said a bit weakly, "Idiot. I'm not even wearing a Doppler."

Shirogane hauled him up the rail. Still not letting go of the other's wrist, Shirogane pulled back with his other hand and slapped Ryuuko hard across the cheek. Ryuuko slumped down to the ground. He rubbed numbly at his cheek, and then at his wrist when Shirogane freed him.

"If you're going to pretend you're human," Shirogane said, "shouldn't you go all the way, you bastard?"

Ryuuko froze up. And then, quite unexpectedly, he started to laugh.

"I…" Shirogane turned his face away, and forced himself to continue: "I shouldn't have hit you." Ryuuko had gone quiet to listen to him, and Shirogane finished stiffly: "I apologize."

Ryuuko shook his head.

"You're being awfully kind today, Shirogane," he remarked, resting his back against the rail. His face glowed faintly amber-white under the desultory sun, the blood rising like a blush on one cheek from the slap Shirogane had given him. It was the first time Shirogane had seen Ryuuko with an unguarded face, when he'd dropped his usual mask of calm and looked only tired and happy and faintly stupid.

"Since we're here," Ryuuko said now, offhandedly, "Is there some place you want to go?" He made a vague gesture with his hand. "A school must be too boring for you, right?"

Shirogane looked away from Ryuuko. He considered.

"I don't know," he admitted, oddly flustered.

"Any place is fine, since it's only for today. There won't be an attribute inversion if we're together, right? Or if it still causes some problems, I'll fix it later. So, Shirogane. Where do you want to go?"

Shirogane sighed. Ryuuko looked at him expectantly.

"A ramen store?"

Ryuuko looked surprised for a moment, but then smiled.

"All right."

…

Sawaki put the last pile down with a satisfying thump on the desk, leaning on it to smile his sweet, suitable revenge on Lulu.

"And please read through these, King."

Lulu let out a sob.

**

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**Author's End Note:** Shirogane and Ryuuko in a ramen store…what would people think if they saw that…? Lulu's play is a reference to Kingdom Hearts 2, with Sawaki as Sora and Homurabi as Axel (because those two really look alike). Yeah, the game couldn't have been invented sixteen years ago (Akira's human life span), but you never know. Maybe Lulu influenced people into making that game, or so that's how I choose to explain it. :) Writing this was really good stress relief, but I'm finding it hard to keep the humor! To justify myself a bit…we all know where this has to end, right? It's not even a spoiler if I say the ending now. I have a hazy idea of where this is supposed to go, but I won't really know anything until I start writing. If you have suggestions or anything, please let me know in a review. Anyway, thanks for reading. :D


	5. The King's Gambit the Late Player

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Monochrome Factor or any of its characters.

**Author's Note:** Just found out recently who Master really is, and before I knew it, an unplanned character has appeared! (And Ryuuko's looking less like a player and more like a piece in this whole thing…)

**

* * *

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The King is Dead, Long Live the King

Chapter Five: King's Gambit; the Late Player

Throughout the long history of both worlds, Rei and Shin, as representatives of dark and light, had fought each other quite simply and naturally. But, at the same time, they held back. It just didn't do for any of them if all existence were snuffed out because they were missing their other side. The objective of both sides, then, was not to take over the other. Technically, it was to keep the balance between both worlds. But no one, of course, said no to being just a little bit stronger than the other was.

The Shin would agree, in fact, that the Rei were sniffy bastards about this. But the Rei would say in their defense that they knew just what the side of dark would do if they were the ones who had extra power, which was Something Definitely Not Good, and must involve the worship of leather and the dyeing of every white article of clothing into black.

Shisui, the other King of the Rei, was a victim of such an attack, and Homurabi had very much killed the white from his cape before he could pull away and run from there. Not that it made much difference to Shisui, of course, who was as kind as his hair was short compared to the other Kings.'

But his kindness could only extend up to a certain point, and even he couldn't ignore the fact that the Rei Direct King, the supporting pillar and very essence of the light world, had just been kidnapped. The other Rei had started sharpening their knives.

Kou's report was certainly a lot to think about.

"Explain this to me again," Shisui said, his forehead creased with a worried frown. The other Rei murmured their impatience; only the shadow world could have been behind it. But Shisui raised his hand, and they held their peace. Some of them weren't there when Kou had first entered the hall, hurt and in a rage to deliver his report, and they must also want to hear it. And Shisui figured it would help having Kou repeat what he'd said when he was calmer. So far, all he'd been hearing from Kou was a list of destroyed objects, including a potted palm, Lulu's whip, several unfortunate hakuas, and Shirogane had supposedly destroyed a wall and a lot of the plants besides. All of which Shisui could believe, but still, he wanted to at least make sense of it.

"You're saying you were attacked, right? By whom?"

Kou exhaled noisily. "It was Lulu and Homurabi. And Shirogane-san."

"Will you tell me how it happened?" Shisui gave Kou a faintly apologetic smile, and he felt Kou relax a bit.

"Well…" Kou paused to think. "We were in the garden. Ryuuko was helping me find the hidden rocket ship, but Homurabi wanted to steal it and had Lulu attack us. So we fought."

"Rocket ship," Shisui repeated slowly, growing more confused at Kou's affirming silence. "You're sure about this?"

"Of course," Kou said. "Ryuuko told me he was building it with Shirogane-san. That's why they were together all the time."

"But," Shisui faltered, "The treaty—"

"It can't be about a treaty though, can it?"

Shisui paused, and then nodded in grave understanding. Inwardly, he thought, with a little smile: Ryuuko, why that? "I see what must have happened. Ryuuko probably wanted to tease you, Kou. You understand that too, right? But go on. Homurabi wanted the rocket ship…"

"And," Kou muttered a bit more uncertainly, bemused at being told that Ryuuko, whose whole idea of a joke had been confined to smiling at someone else's joke, had in fact been 'teasing' him, "Shirogane wanted to put Ryuuko in a gown for their wedding, and he accepted."

There was quite a bit of silence. Shisui tapped his hand against the side of his throne. "Can't there have been some mistake?"

"I should think so," Kou was unable to keep from snarling. "Can you even imagine it, Shisui-san? Ryuuko in a gown for Shirogane-san?"

"Definitely," one Rei muttered, "a kimono. Something more traditional." And the others nodded. Kou let out another snarl, and Shisui tapped softly on the wood of his chair to remind them all to behave. "What happened after that?"

Kou scratched his head in what Shisui rightly read as a bid to stall for time. His words when they next came were spoken very rapidly and very low. "I might have then tried to kill Shirogane-san, and he might have tried to kill me in turn. And Ryuuko might have tried to protect me, and might have ended up crashing against the wall and getting knocked out. And Shirogane might have carried him away with him to the shadow world."

"…Where Lulu and Homurabi might also have followed?"

"Yeah."

Shisui laid a cool palm against his forehead. "So it amounts to this: Our Direct King was kidnapped and taken to the shadow world to be Shirogane, the Shin Direct King's bride?"

"Yeah."

"It's not possible that Ryuuko's merely teasing you again, and they moved the place of signing the new treaty to the shadow world? Since the last one didn't hold"—Shisui inclined his head towards Kou very slightly, his smile never slipping—"after someone threw a balloon filled with paint on the other esteemed king of the Shin."

Kou gave a helpless shrug. "That was a favor. He was harassing you."

"At any rate," Shisui said with a soft sigh, "We can't be hasty about this. We don't want to start a war because of a misunderstanding, but we can't ignore this either…Are there any ideas?"

The room erupted in shouts for revenge, and again, Shisui nodded.

"A valid point," he said slowly. "Except what does everyone propose to do? Drag Shirogane back from the shadow world so he'd be Ryuuko's bride instead?" Shisui lifted his hand from his forehead and laid it back on the arm rest, waiting for the shouts to die down to murmurs before speaking again. "Perhaps, for now, we should make reclaiming Ryuuko our top priority. We can send a hakua scout to find out if he's being kept there against his will, where he'd be considerably weaker. If that's the case, we need to get him back. Without our Direct King, it's only a matter of time before the light world itself is overrun if the shadow world decides that we're enemies."

It was only after he'd said it that Shisui realized how serious the situation could be. At least the Children realized this too, and hurried now to get what he had ordered done.

Shisui turned to Kou. "Did Ryuuko leave any instructions with you before he was taken away?"

"There was a letter in case something happened to him…" Kou started running his hands over his clothes. "I have it here somewhere…"

"Can you read it for me?"

Shisui couldn't help but lean forward while he waited almost impatiently for Kou to find the letter, break the wax seal, and smooth the paper out. Kou cleared his throat before starting to read: " 'I don't think this can happen, but in the event that I am unable to take care of my responsibilities, I leave Shisui to lead. And one thing more…' " Shisui felt Kou hesitate. "…'Please trust Shirogane.' "

Shisui heaved another sigh and settled himself back on his chair. He'd hoped for something more definite, and he wasn't at all sure how far he should be trusting Shirogane. The letter was old too, and Ryuuko might well have changed his opinion after what had happened. Not to mention that he hadn't heard anything about a marriage from Ryuuko himself. Or was that what the new treaty turned out to be?

"Is that all?" he asked.

Kou flipped to the second page of the letter.

" 'The plants have to be watered daily. The tea leaves are kept in the largest cabinet in the kitchen; the labels will tell you which they are. Please have someone competent fix the desk if you plan to use it. Leaning on it too heavily will remove the tacks keeping the right leg fastened to the table, and it would collapse. Replacements for Kou's belts are in the third-floor store room.' "

"All right. You can stop reading, Kou." Shisui motioned to Kou to come closer. "There's one other thing that I would like you to do…"

…

Homurabi, Shirogane's self-declared little brother, was depressed. This was a strange thing to see because Homurabi usually operated on one of two modes: gleeful, or irritated. Depressed Homurabi meant his hair did not flare out in its normal fiery way, but instead looked droopy and subdued, and there was a nimbus of black crackling energy above him that was frankly startling Lulu's hair into static. Lulu was starting to think she wasn't getting paid enough for staying around. And she was right, considering she wasn't getting paid at all.

"Ne, Homurabi-sama." Lulu suppressed a violent shudder at Homurabi's acknowledging twitch, and she forced herself to continue in a jovial tone: "Do you want to eat cake with me?"

Homurabi's hand twitched above his knee, and he turned slightly away from Lulu, gazing off into the door at the end of the hall as if he could see inside. "I'll pass."

"Wanna play sumo?"

Another twitch. "I'll pass."

Lulu wiped at her brow. Then she stood up and started backing precipitately away. "I guess I'll go get Sawaki-chan then…"

Homurabi suddenly shot up from his own chair, sending it toppling over, and Lulu jumped with a tiny squeak, bringing her arms above her head.

"I don't get it!" Homurabi said.

Since murder was rarely preceded by a statement like 'I don't get it,' Lulu decided she wasn't in danger yet. She brought her arms down to look at Homurabi. "Yes?"

"He hasn't left that room once, and he's been there two days."

"He's probably sitting by the bed, waiting for Ryuuko-sama to wake up…"

Very slowly, Homurabi drooped down to the floor. "And when he wakes up…" he murmured shakily.

"Shirogane-sama and Ryuuko-sama are getting married! Yay!"

"Lulu," Homurabi said. "That wasn't what I needed to hear."

"Sorry."

Homurabi looked down at his nails. "Since it's come to this, I must get married too." He looked up almost fiercely at Lulu, and Lulu immediately crossed her arms in front of her before he could open his mouth. "I'll pass!"

"But—that's the entire female population!"

Lulu giggled behind her hand and gave Homurabi a sideways glance. "If it's about preserving the balance," Lulu said, "What about that other Rei King? It looks like Christmas when you're together. Because of your hair."

Homurabi hinged his mouth open, but before he could scream anything, they heard Shirogane from the now slightly opened door at the end of the hall call Lulu's name. The effect of that cold voice was immediate. They scampered up and stood very straight, and Lulu forgot to fluff out her skirts. "Yes!" she said, voice rising with nervousness.

The pale sliver of Shirogane's face showing in the crack of the door was as disinterested as always. He said, "Call Sawaki."

"Yes!"

Homurabi strode forward until he almost reached the door. "Brother, what's happening? Are you really getting married?"

Shirogane looked at Homurabi. "You heard," he said.

"But he hasn't even woken up yet, has he?"

Shirogane's hand closed violently over the wood. "It doesn't change anything." He glanced behind Homurabi at Lulu again. "When you find him, take Sawaki to this room."

"Yes!"

Lulu took her leave. Behind her, she heard Homurabi say resentfully, "What's this business with Sawaki?" And Shirogane, after a thoughtful pause, ask, "You have a lot of belts, don't you?"

She turned a corner. Thought about it. Giggled.

Maybe she could get some ice cream first. And then go get Sawaki. In any case, Shirogane didn't say she had to hurry, and maybe he meant for her not to hurry at all…

…

The thing with hakua was that they were technically the same as their counterpart kokuchi. Meaning, they were dumb like the kokuchi. But there _were_ differences. Hakua, like their name suggested, were white. They didn't clog washing machines like kokuchi did, because what they couldn't distinguish between was holes to the dark they had to mend, and drainage pipes. But the biggest and most important difference of all, and the only one really relevant to this story: They didn't have Sawaki to train them.

So far, the Rei found twenty drainage pipes, a good ramen store, and a priest in a shop that sold dubious toys. They also found a number of explicit doujins in Ryuuko's castle, but reasoned they were Kou's. An uneaten pack of natto curry bread, which could be anyone's.

They'd sent hakua to the shadow world too, but none of them had returned yet. Now, a lot of things could have happened to the hakua scout. It could have gotten decimated by Shin, for one, or been sidetracked by kokuchi. But at that point, the Rei had had to crawl out of another sewage pipe, and surly with no rescued Ryuuko to show for their efforts, they were starting to bet that the hakua got lost on their own, the stupid things. Which could also be perfectly true.

"Shit," they said.

…

"You have a lot of belts, don't you?"

The question, totally unexpected, made Homurabi stare saucer-eyed at Shirogane. Shirogane's eyes slid over to one side in an expression Homurabi could only interpret as sullen patience. "You'd know how to remove them."

"I guess…" Homurabi refrained from saying Shirogane had belts too. He wasn't sure where any of it was leading. Shirogane, in a rare gesture of not being completely cold towards people who weren't Ryuuko, stepped away from the door and waited for Homurabi to enter. Homurabi did so with a sense that, somehow, a mistake had been made. He lifted one foot and hooked it behind his other one in a nervous gesture that was completely hidden by his robes.

It was his first time inside Shirogane's room, which was dark-paneled and almost neat in a dusty, untouched way, and Homurabi remembered it was rarely occupied and probably didn't mean much to his older brother, except it had a bed to sleep in. Homurabi somehow expected there to be a lot of dead things, probably a stuffed kokuchi or two, but the only thing impressive about the room were the bed hangings, which looked like Shirogane had practiced on them with his sword on lazy afternoons.

Shirogane shut the door softly. Ryuuko was lying wrapped up in a blanket on the four-poster bed, his breathing soft and even with sleep. Shirogane sat on one side of the bed and carefully lifted the blanket from Ryuuko.

"He's been in these dirty clothes for more than a day," Shirogane said softly.

Homurabi had the self-destructive urge to tell Shirogane to just leave Ryuuko, dirty clothes or no. But he did some quick thinking and realized he was already involved, and that Shirogane had even let him inside his room, which must mean that Shirogane needed and trusted him. This was it, Homurabi thought in almost tearful joy, their happy brother-bonding.

"So you need help in getting him out of those clothes?"

"Yes."

"Okay," Homurabi said, moving towards the opposite side of the bed. Shirogane inclined his head ever so slightly in wordless thanks.

They leaned over Ryuuko's body.

"We should start with the cape first," Homurabi said, inspecting where it came together at the neck. "The fastenings look simple. See? They hook in, so you just have to release the hooks." Homurabi did this. Shirogane lifted Ryuuko slightly off the bed, the back of Ryuuko's neck leaning on the crook of Shirogane's arm so Homurabi could pull the cape from under him. Ryuuko's brows contracted, but he didn't wake.

Homurabi dropped the cape on the bed, above the discarded blanket. He lifted Ryuuko's arm. The arm bands didn't look like they were meant to come off individually, but they seemed tight enough that it would be difficult to pull his coat off when they came to the sleeves. He put the hand down again with a small bemused frown, and with half a mind to say it might be easier to cut Ryuuko out of his clothes rather than saving the damn things. They were dirty anyway. But no, he couldn't disappoint his brother.

Homurabi looked Ryuuko's clothes over again, and decided it was a safe bet that the two broad belts at his waist had to be removed first. He undid the belts, dropped them with the cape and blanket, and unzipped Ryuuko's coat. Throughout all this, Shirogane assisted him little, but gazed out the window as if he was bored, only pushing Ryuuko up by the shoulders a bit while Homurabi struggled with pulling the coat off of him. He was right, the sleeves were a bother. Perhaps he should have sliced the bands off first. But finally Homurabi managed to get the whole coat off. He shook it out once, and clumps of dried dirt and moss fell on the bed.

"I just thought of something, Brother," Homurabi said. "Because he's a Rei, his clothes must be made of light particles."

"That's right," Shirogane said.

"Then wouldn't it be easier if you just break those particles down?"

Shirogane's eyes followed a cloud's trail outside the window. "I'm not sure it would be appreciated."

So his older brother was worrying about Ryuuko again. Homurabi wondered why Shirogane even bothered. Even if he went and reduced Ryuuko to his skin, they could just get replacement clothes anyway, or bundle him back under the blanket and wait for Ryuuko himself to wake up and conjure some new clothes. It wasn't like Ryuuko wouldn't survive waking up naked in Shirogane's castle in the shadow world. Well, he might be a bit surprised, but Homurabi didn't care about that.

Homurabi let his eyelids drop in irritation. But aloud, he only said: "I see." He reached back to drop the coat on the pile of Ryuuko's other clothes just as Sawaki entered the room.

…

Lulu was starting on her second quarter-gallon of ice cream (tiramisu; the first had been chocolate-and-chocolate-chip), when Sawaki pushed the kitchen door open and went to get his bottle of mineral water from the refrigerator. Lulu threw her spoon so that it stuck to the ceiling, and then let her breath out in an explosive wail, earning her a confused stare from Sawaki.

"What is it, Lulu?"

Lulu looked woefully down on her ice cream. She slapped the lid shut and stuffed it back in the freezer with Homurabi's century eggs. "Shirogane-sama asked me to get you."

Sawaki drank from his water bottle, suddenly too tired to get himself a glass and pour it there instead. When he was done, he licked his lips and looked at Lulu. "Then why are you here?"

"Because," Lulu said, swinging her feet and hitting the side of a table leg with them, "He didn't say how long he wanted me gone."

"Normally, a message should be delivered as quickly as you can, right?"

Lulu wasn't impressed by his logic. "But he's with Ryuuko-sama."

"This is Shirogane we're talking about," Sawaki said. If he'd been listening properly to Lulu, he wouldn't have defended Shirogane, and at the very least known what to expect. As it was, Sawaki didn't grasp what she'd just told him beyond the most flimsy understanding that whatever it was (inevitably) involved the Rei King in some way, and might vaguely be considered an insult to Shirogane's position as King. And Sawaki's weary brain automatically formed a proper response. "He should be smart enough not to do anything. Now, where is he?"

Lulu jumped off the table. "His room," Lulu said. "I'll go with you."

"I know where it is," Sawaki said, but didn't try to stop Lulu when she came along. Lulu was practically bouncing off the walls with all the sugar she'd taken in, and even decapitated a kokuchi for surprising her in one hallway. Sawaki was more than a little wary of her, and more than a little thankful when they reached the door to Shirogane's room.

"Hmm?" Lulu said. "Where's Homu-chin?"

Sawaki ignored her. Instead, Sawaki, forgetting all ceremony, opened the door and stepped in, and closed it immediately behind him so that Lulu was kept out.

…

Sawaki turned around and found out two things:

One was that he'd found where Homurabi was.

And the other was that he and Shirogane were both leaning over Ryuuko. Ryuuko, who wasn't supposed to be there. Ryuuko, who was additionally, Sawaki saw, unconscious and half out of his clothes in the bed.

Shirogane didn't react. It was Homurabi who did.

"No!" Homurabi shouted, one hand out as if to stop Sawaki from opening the door and leaving again, the other with the fabric of Ryuuko's coat still crumpled in his clawed fingers. "I'm not guilty of anything!"

"Forgive me that I can't believe," Sawaki said, backing away.

It was in the middle of that unfortunate situation that Ryuuko coughed, pulled himself unsteadily out of Shirogane's arms and opened his eyes.

…

"Spy?"

Shisui cupped his chin with one hand. "I'm rethinking this," he said. "If we do this right, maybe this could work in our favor."

"You're using Ryuuko?"

Shisui stiffened at the angry accusation, but only allowed himself a sigh. He held his hand out to pat Kou comfortingly on the head, retracting his hand when Kou pulled away. "That's not how I mean this," Shisui explained patiently. "I'm saying, in a situation like this, we can't think of only Ryuuko. Besides, you don't know what his stand on this is, right?"

"He was probably"—Kou groped for a word—"confused."

"All right," Shisui said, with the smile he reserved for idiots he couldn't afford to be angry with him. (He mostly used the smile on Shirogane and Homurabi, and had nearly perfected it by then.) "But think: Ryuuko's in the shadow world. Shirogane must have developed some very strong safeguards because he's always in the light world, but we can't expect Ryuuko to adjust as quickly to an attribute change, not when he's hurt."

"But you're saying," Kou said, "that we're leaving him there?"

"Yes." Shisui hesitated for a while, mulling it over once more. "Actually, before you even got here, I received a visit from Sawaki. He appeared to be under the impression that Ryuuko and Shirogane are in fact working out the details of this…marriage. And that the marriage was happening in three day's time. That would be tomorrow. Which makes me think that Ryuuko was going to officially declare it before this happened."

"You can't believe that!"

"I don't know what to believe."

Kou was silent, and Shisui recognized the chance to promote his plan. He smiled again, and said almost conversationally: "Sawaki's visit could have been a ploy."

"Then—"

"But if we show them we weren't deceived by this," Shisui cut in smoothly, "They might judge dealing with us too dangerous, and Ryuuko might end up getting hurt, even killed… Do you see why we have to be careful, Kou?"

Kou must have seen. "So, what should we do then?" he asked grudgingly. "You want me to sneak in?"

The smile, Shisui reflected to himself, always worked.

"That's not necessary," Shisui said. "It's a wedding, right?" Shisui clasped his hands in front of him and smiled gently over them at Kou. "It's normal for someone from the bride's family to come as a guest."

* * *

**Author's End Note:** A gambit is basically the sacrifice of a piece for the win, but a King's Gambit is considered too risky to pull off… In chess, there's also an opening called Sicilian Defense. You start with your two pawns in the center and bring your officers out to protect each other. It's really hard to penetrate, but only if it's already been done. When you recognize your opponent trying to do it, you can start taking out some pieces, starting with the pawn, and watch the incomplete formation collapse. If you think of this in relation to Ryuuko, that's kind of what happens to him in the next chapter :)


	6. A King's Defense

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Monochrome Factor or any of its characters.

**Author's Note:** When I reread the previous chapter, I saw that Sawaki experienced a small burp in logic which I forgot to explain. (So I guess that burp in logic was mine…?) It was pretty messy too, so I cleaned it up a bit since I'm a bit compulsive about such things. Nothing really changed much though, except I'm beginning to see just how bad I am at doing transitions. Hopefully this chapter is better…

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The King is Dead, Long Live the King

Chapter Six: A King's Defense

To take care of one probable loose end at this point of the story, let's go to the hakua scout which the Rei had sent to the shadow world to find Ryuuko. The hakua scout which had not, or had not yet, found Ryuuko, and which could have met up with either kokuchi or Shin, or could also have gotten lost on their own.

The real circumstances in which the hakua scout found itself involved in can be explained by looking at any Magritte painting.

Or, to put it more clearly: No one knows what happened to it.

…

There are a few things about Ryuuko that people who know him generally don't know about.

One was that he was actually pretty lazy. Like a cat, he could curl up below his window for a bit of sun and sleep through most of the day if he allowed himself to, except he rarely did since it was a habit he couldn't afford to pick up as a King, not when so many things depended on him. Which was why he always moved around to keep from being lazy.

Another thing was that he recognized that Shirogane was beautiful, and the recognition bothered him a bit. He'd never quite figured out how Shirogane's mind worked, but Shirogane was still the only friend he had who did not have that unintentionally distancing awe of him that the others did. So Ryuuko felt a bit embarrassed whenever he got distracted by the way Shirogane looked, and had therefore resolved to ignore the fact that he had ever noticed anything.

And one other thing was that Ryuuko wasn't very good at dealing with embarrassment. It depended on the situation and the people involved, but generally what Ryuuko did was to poorly pretend not to feel embarrassed, with that reasoning which said that if he didn't show embarrassment, then the other party will. When too much embarrassment was involved though, it became a slightly different story.

These three things are important mainly because they come into play at that time when Ryuuko woke up.

…

Ryuuko's head hurt. He could dimly hear voices, feel the gentle pressure of someone's chest and someone's arm keeping him from falling. No, that wasn't right. There was something soft but solid underneath him, so he couldn't be falling after all.

Ryuuko sifted through the sluggish haze in his brain and came up with the thought that he probably collapsed from overwork. It had happened to him before, that time with Kou's prank and Homurabi's answering prank involving several misplaced holy items in Mt Fuji, which had resulted in kokuchi overflowing into the light world. It had looked like a thousand ants wriggling free from a sea of soy sauce. The sight didn't make him throw up, but he'd collapsed after cleaning it up. He remembered putting Kou on bathroom duty because of it, and the pranks were thankfully less dangerous after that.

So was this because of another prank…?

He was probably back in his room, and the person holding him had to be Shirogane. He couldn't think of anyone else who would have held him quietly like that. He was sure Kou, for one, would have called or shaken him a bit so he'd wake up.

Right then, Ryuuko didn't want to wake up. What he wanted was to stay there as long as he could. He could use some blankets too; it was a bit cold. For a moment he considered burrowing into a more comfortable position in the bed, but Shirogane was warm and he didn't want to move and lose that heat source. Briefly he considered just putting his arms around Shirogane and pulling him down with him, then thought that Shirogane probably had objections to being used like a pillow.

How long had he been there anyway? Ryuuko thought. He must have been out for over an hour if they had had the time to move him to a proper bed. Even if they were friends, he really shouldn't be troubling Shirogane like this. And so, reluctantly, Ryuuko started to wake himself up.

Someone was saying something shrilly. It sounded like the other Shin King. Ryuuko wondered if Kou had done something again, and whether he should ask Shisui to mediate for him. He drew in a breath and coughed, just then noticing how stale the air was. They had probably brought him to one of the spare rooms. He sat up slowly, his body protesting a bit against the movement. He felt Shirogane stiffen in surprise, his hands automatically going for Ryuuko's shoulders to help him. The touch somehow came as a shock; it took Ryuuko a while to place why it was, before finally realizing that Shirogane's hands had met bare skin instead of thick layers of cloth. With a strange sense of foreboding, he opened his eyes.

The first thing he saw, unfortunately, was Homurabi leaning over him. Sawaki was somewhere near the foot of the bed, making a sound like a gurgling gasp or a scream that had halfway frozen in his throat, his hands moving in the air in what was decidedly a failed 'calm down' gesture.

Ryuuko realized one thing more. And that was that he was missing his coat, and said coat was in Homurabi's hands.

The room was also definitely not his.

So, Ryuuko thought. This is a dream.

"Ryuuko," Shirogane said. "You're finally awake."

Ryuuko felt something crumble inside him. He could ignore Shirogane, _or_ he could think more about the situation he was in if he happened to really be awake, which was starting to feel more likely even in its improbability. The facts were simple enough: He was missing some clothes, and he was with strange company, inside a room he didn't remember going to. And Shirogane was there and had seen him when he was being either undressed or put back in his clothes by said strange company inside said strange room. Ryuuko heard a surprisingly petulant voice in his head scold him about following the first mysterious stranger who said he had pretty hair. The voice sounded remarkably like Kou's.

There is an explanation for this, Ryuuko thought sensibly. Unfortunately, that was also Ryuuko's last sensible thought before his mind closed itself off and his body started moving on its own.

He twisted from Shirogane's hold, which had been more supportive than restraining, and brought his still booted foot up and then down hard on Homurabi's shoulder. Homurabi gasped out a curse and put his hand out to stop from falling over Ryuuko's other leg, but Ryuuko was already holding him by the neck of his coat, bringing his knee up and leaning back so that when his knee connected with Homurabi's stomach, Homurabi was also thrown over him and onto Shirogane.

He heard a grunt, did not analyze whose it was. He grabbed his coat and flung it behind him as he rolled off the bed, landing lightly in a crouch and using the time the distraction of his coat bought him to materialize his scythe. Or at least he tried to, except it wouldn't keep its form. Some part of Ryuuko thought for him: He did not have enough energy to materialize his weapon, and he was also probably in the shadow world with the attribute working against him. If he hadn't thrown his coat, he could have broken it down and completed his scythe with that, but it was too late now to retrieve.

Ryuuko, consciousness barely there, did not hesitate. He swung his scythe across in a wide arc and brought the roof of the bed crashing down in a mass of heavy cloth and splintered wood. Homurabi and Shirogane barely had time to throw themselves away from the falling debris. Sawaki brought his arms up to his nose and coughed at the cloud of dust.

Ryuuko turned around to open the door he had earlier noted was there, bringing his hand holding the scythe down but not dematerializing the scythe. Before he could touch the knob, however, the door started to open on its own from outside, and Ryuuko flung himself back. Shirogane, who by then had recovered from his surprise, threw his arms around Ryuuko from behind and pinned his arms to his sides.

"Ryuuko," Shirogane said. It wasn't a command. It was a plea.

Everything suddenly clicked back into painful focus. Ryuuko lost his grip on the scythe, which faded away as it fell.

"My head," Homurabi complained, crawling from under a curtain and coughing on the dust. "My nails…"

Lulu poked her head in the door. "What's wrong? Oh…Ryuuko-sama!" Her gaze wandered from Ryuuko trapped in Shirogane's arms to the remains of the destroyed furniture. "Amazing! You actually brought the bed down!"

Ryuuko drew in a shaky breath. He could feel his blush like a hard pinch on his cheeks and blamed it all on Shirogane. "Shirogane," he said when he could keep his voice even. "Explain."

…

"Kou," Shisui said. "Please stop whining Ryuuko's name at every break in the spell." He sighed before continuing warningly: "If you keep doing that, you'll never get it done."

Kou began to argue, then settled on pouting his annoyance. "Shisui-san, you just don't understand these things." He sat on the ground and patted his pockets for a cigarette, sighing when he realized he was out. "It's a bit…unsettling, you know? If I think of when I go to the shadow world, I might see Ryuuko in a gown."

"Do you really think you will?" Shisui asked. "More importantly, that's what you were worrying about?"

"What color would it even be? And Shirogane—What am I doing, stopping here when Shirogane could be doing things to him right now!" Kou quickly got to his feet and rubbed his trousers clean. "Ryuuko wouldn't even know if he was being tricked by Shirogane-san. Do you know I told him once that wearing a yukata during winter when you're at home is normal in human households? And he believed me."

Shisui frowned, believing, disbelieving. "Might I ask why you told him that?"

"Well…" Kou indulged himself in a flashback and chuckled behind his hands. "It looked so cute when he tried it and he was trying so hard to look like he wasn't trying to keep warm. Like staying in front of the oven. And he even hugged me."

Shisui took a few steps backward. He said: "Ryuuko might be safer with Shirogane after all."

"What does that mean? I'm definitely getting Ryuuko back," Kou huffed. He sucked in his breath to go on with the spell.

"Kou," Shisui called. "You remember what you have to do, right?"

A pause, then: "Yeah."

"Don't start anything."

"Yeah."

"Just try to find out what's happening, then go back and give me your report. I'll decide what move we'll take after that."

"Yeah, I know. I'll wait." Kou recited the rest of the spell. The air in front of him rippled, and Kou leaned in towards it and was gone.

Shisui stood watching for several seconds more. He wiped at his brow with the sleeve of his robe. "I wonder if he really understood?"

…

Shirogane brought Ryuuko to another room, where they spent the next five minutes watching each other in wary, partly embarrassed silence. Shirogane had closed the door, but Ryuuko felt more than a little sure that Sawaki and the others must be keeping a watch outside and casually eavesdropping. Not that there was much to hear, since Shirogane remained standing silently near the window, looking out occasionally at the unchanging view of gray outside.

Ryuuko cautiously lowered himself to a chair and sighed, watching Shirogane's reflection in the glass from the corner of his eye. "Shirogane. Please. Just say something."

Shirogane frowned slightly, a shallow dimple forming between his brows. "You were there," he said. "You know what happened. You just forgot."

"What you're telling me," Ryuuko said, "is to wait for my memory to come back on its own?"

"Yes."

Ryuuko's smile was a bit dry. "Shirogane, I'm in the shadow world. My energy level is low enough that all I can do for now is materialize a shirt, and I woke up about to be manhandled by your brother. Or whatever it was that was happening then."

There was a scuffle outside, a curse and yelp that was probably muffled with the help of other pairs of hands. Ryuuko glanced shortly at the door, then back at Shirogane, who was rigid as the spine of a book. Ryuuko looked down at the dark polished top of the tea table in front of him.

"With no idea what's going on, I've started to get suspicious. I need to hear the explanation from you, Shirogane. It won't matter otherwise. Do you understand?"

Very deliberately, Shirogane closed the drapes. He walked over to sit on the chair across Ryuuko's, one perfect eyebrow quirked with a question of his own. Ryuuko had the feeling that he'd somehow given Shirogane the upper hand.

"What is it?"

"You just told me you trust me enough to believe what I tell you," Shirogane said. "I could lie, you know."

Ryuuko sighed through his nose. "Don't make it complicated. Please." He rested his elbows on the table and propped his chin in one hand. "I can judge what's happening just as well by your lie," he decided. "Besides, it's not your nature to lie; it's your nature to keep quiet. Well?"

Shirogane inclined his head ever so slightly. "How much do you remember?"

Ryuuko thought. "I remember Kou was following me around… And your hair got wet." Ryuuko waited for Shirogane to look up from inspecting his nails before saying: "You didn't finally kill Kou, did you?"

"…I hit you instead of him."

"Oh," Ryuuko said with no trace of hurt or accusation. Well, that explained a bit. "But you took me back with you to the shadow world…it was you who decided that, right? Why?"

"I didn't want to leave you with Kou."

"Even so, you didn't have to worry. Kou could have taken care of me."

Ryuuko noticed Shirogane grit his teeth with a surprised alarm. "No," Shirogane said, sounding a bit sullen. He let out the softest of snorts and looked away. The skin around his eyes was shadowed faintly gray, though he didn't look tired at all. He probably thought that Ryuuko wasn't grateful. Ryuuko felt a bit guilty.

"Well," Ryuuko said, trying to think of something conciliatory to say. "I should still thank you, I guess. I must have been heavy."

"It doesn't matter," Shirogane said. "We're getting married tomorrow anyway."

Ryuuko heard the statement with a calm born of shock. His mind replayed it for him several times and when the words remained the same, Ryuuko finally lifted his gaze from the table to Shirogane's serious face. He looked away and started laughing weakly. "I don't believe it," he said, believing it. He coughed into his hand, rubbed the nape of his neck with two fingers. "Don't tell me…I proposed?"

Shirogane looked at him strangely. "No. I did."

"…And I accepted? That's… Did this really happen?"

"That's why I told you to wait until you remember."

"Head trauma," Ryuuko said vaguely. "It might not even come back." Ryuuko felt, at least, a bit thankful for that. Right then he was starting to think that he didn't really want to know all the details of what had happened after all. "But Shirogane," Ryuuko said, "I'm not sure that it's something that can be done. I mean, this marriage." He muttered the last part under his breath, averting his eyes but still sure that Shirogane was watching him.

"Do you want me to ask again? You can give a proper answer this time."

"No, it's not that," Ryuuko said, feeling his face start to burn again. He tried to think of how to explain it in a way that made sense. "We're both Kings. We exist solely to preserve the balance between light and shadow. The two sides mirror each other, but nothing from each side touches their other half. Nothing can invade to the other side, that's the way it's meant to be. I probably didn't think about it at the time. I'm sorry."

Shirogane appeared to consider this briefly, and then he snorted and frowned at Ryuuko. "Technically, you don't need a shadow, and I don't need someone existing for me in the light world either," Shirogane said, voice perfectly toneless, "We're counterparts, but we're not each other's light and shadow." Shirogane leaned slightly forward and pointed at Ryuuko. "That means the rules are different for us. It's not impossible. And there was no attribute change when we were together in the light world. If you're going to think of an excuse not to, you should try harder. Or you can just tell me if you don't want to wear a gown or something."

Ryuuko colored. "I'm serious about this! Here," he said, taking a coin from his pocket and handing it to Shirogane. Shirogane looked down at it impassively before looking back at Ryuuko for the explanation. "Well, if you think about it," Ryuuko said, "we're two sides of the same coin, right? Do you see any way those two sides can actually touch the other?"

Shirogane brought his hand up and touched Ryuuko briefly on the lips. The touch registered as a line of faint cold, something solid and very real. Ryuuko blinked, then narrowed his eyes in defense and said before he could forget: "I was talking about the coin, Shirogane."

Shirogane looked down at the coin again, moving it meditatively between his fingers. "You're telling me we can't marry…because the sides of this coin won't touch?"

"Yes," Ryuuko said, relief at finally being understood displacing any wariness he might have felt at where Shirogane's logic was taking him. "That's exactly what I'm saying."

Shirogane stopped moving the coin around. He held the coin up in front of Ryuuko, and then twisted it easily around the middle, next folding the coin back into itself. "Here," he said, handing the coin back to Ryuuko. "Problem solved."

"Um," Ryuuko said. "How is it solved?"

"The sides touch now, don't they?" Shirogane said. He leaned back in his chair. "I knew you didn't know about that simple trick."

Ryuuko opened his mouth to reply, but at that moment something crashed through the window. Ryuuko brought his arm up to shield his eyes from the stray glass, then looked over his arm at whatever it was that had crashed in, which had also ripped the drapes free and was now wriggling around in them trying to disentangle itself.

Homurabi, Lulu and Sawaki also crashed through the door and fell to the floor in a heap. Homurabi, from the top of the pile, recovered first and stood quickly. "What happened?"

Ryuuko knelt carefully beside the violently twitching drapes and lifted a corner. "Kou?"

"Ryuuko!" Kou exclaimed tearfully, at once latching on to his neck and pulling him in a hug that was too tight to be comfortable. From the corner of his eye, Ryuuko saw Shirogane's eyes narrow dangerously, and he quickly tried to pull away. Kou wouldn't let go of him though. "Don't worry, Ryuuko," Kou whispered into his ear. "Shisui-san sent me."

Ryuuko paused in his efforts and widened his eyes. "Shisui?"

Homurabi pointed at Kou. "Why the hell are you here? Ah, there's more of you here, isn't there? This is an attack on the shadow world!"

"No," Kou said, drawing the word out for emphasis, and Ryuuko took the opportunity to untangle Kou from him while he was distracted. Kou looked a bit disappointed, but stood up and faced Homurabi. "I'm here as a guest, actually."

"Guest?" Lulu echoed, pulling herself off of Sawaki, who, grumbling at his hurt dignity, also rose from the floor and patted his clothes clean. Homurabi briefly looked at them in annoyance, and then said to Kou: "No one invited you!"

"And that's just bad of you, isn't it?" Kou said, plopping himself down on where Ryuuko previously sat. "It's obvious I'll come for Ryuuko's wedding!"

Ryuuko, who had been about to stand himself, stopped and sat down on the floor again.

"Please wait," Sawaki said, laying a restraining hand on Homurabi's shoulder when Homurabi would have shouted more. "To be honest, I was expecting someone to come," Sawaki presently explained to the room. "Naturally, since this can also be seen as a political matter, I've told the other King of the Rei about this. Perhaps he thought that too many people would seem distrustful of us, and therefore acted discreetly and sent only one as the representative of all the other Rei."

"That's right," Kou said, not realizing that Ryuuko was staring at him with his mouth open. Ryuuko had thought, at first, that Kou was there to get him back. But it seemed Kou wasn't against it, and Shisui was aware of the marriage and was sanctioning it, which must mean that Shisui thought it was necessary in preserving the balance, or else, that it was something to their favor. I'm being married off, Ryuuko thought in dismay. What do I do now? Even Shirogane was being serious about it.

"That's all right, isn't it, Shirogane-san?" Kou now asked. Shirogane, Ryuuko saw, was looking at Kou as if debating whether running him through or feeding him to the kokuchi was more interesting.

For a moment, Ryuuko considered jumping out the window. He sighed.

"Shirogane," Ryuuko said. "Let him stay." And then he muttered after a pause: "And…I don't want to wear a gown."

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**Author's End Note:** I like writing Sawaki, but he doesn't really have many lines here or anywhere after. I kind of think of him as being one of Shirogane's Children who betrayed him. (When he asked Homurabi if he wanted him to kill the King again, he could have been talking about Shirogane, right?) But I don't know anything for sure, of course. That's why there's no mention of whose Child he is in the story. Ryuuko's starting to feel more like Akira too; it's because Akira isn't in this story…


	7. Interlude II

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Monochrome Factor or any of its characters.

**Author's Note:** Somehow I feel a bit guilty for updating with an interlude after several weeks of not writing anything, but the idea for this chapter came a while back and I was just waiting to get in the mood to write it. I hope the people who've been reading this will be patient with my pace, as slow as it is.

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The King is Dead, Long Live the King

Chapter Seven: Interlude II "The Start of Something Like Friendship"

If Homurabi thought about it, he could pin down when things first began to go wrong to one day several years ago. It was the day when Ryuuko led an attack to the shadow world.

The boundary in the area where the Rei had appeared was being held together at the time by a scrambling group of kokuchi. It had been damaged the previous night by Shirogane in a rage, and the kokuchi had been frantic all day, pulling the gaping boundary together and getting sucked in the light world, where they went berserk in their usual way. The Rei had not appreciated the double damage dealt on their side, and Ryuuko himself had apparently decided to take action.

If Homurabi had known what would happen next, he would have knocked Sawaki out before he could wake Shirogane and make his report. And then sent a carefully forged apology letter to the Rei Direct King. It could even have worked, especially with a gift of tea leaves to sweeten the deal. As it was, the fight happened, and the outcome of it was that the two direct kings became, quite unexpectedly, friends. Homurabi's exact thoughts on the matter are too foul to see print.

Aside from being the start of the end, Homurabi remembered the incident because, for a serious fight, the setting had not been dramatic at all.

…

The playground was in ruins.

Kou flipped the last kokuchi into the remaining undamaged stone penguin, chipping off the beak. Then he kicked the kokuchi hard on its squishy midsection. The kokuchi disappeared with a hiss and a rush of air, and Kou's foot connected with the penguin's beakless face. Ryuuko said, softly, "Kou," and Kou quickly pulled his foot from the remains of the now headless penguin and gave a little nervous laugh. He lifted the penguin's head from the ground and tried to fit it back, only for the rest of the body to crumble in an unrecognizable heap.

"I'm sorry, Ryuuko!"

"It's all right," Ryuuko said. His words to Kou were spoken almost gently, although he was frowning at Shirogane and had his scythe out in front of him. "It would have been better if we didn't add anything to the damage, but I'm sure the humans will take care of it. Next time, wait for Shisui's spell, all right?"

"Yes…"

Homurabi saw that the other King of the Rei stood complacently over Ryuuko's shoulder. His hands were empty. Maybe he wasn't there to fight, or else he was waiting for a signal from Ryuuko to begin. Homurabi himself hovered uncertainly behind and to one side of Shirogane. But Shirogane hadn't made a move yet, except to cross his arms and glare icily at his opposite king. He had gone there with Homurabi because Sawaki had reported an attribute inversion accompanying a breach, and Shirogane had not gone happily.

"What is this about?" Shirogane asked, voice low, not really concerned with the answer but threatening. Of course, that was exactly the sort of behavior which Homurabi looked up to in his older brother, and Homurabi eagerly supported the threat by trying a smirk of his own. The two Kings on the other side didn't react, and Kou snorted.

"You can call this a formal warning," Ryuuko said to Shirogane. "Minus three penguins, this destruction was your work, wasn't it? Even though you have a responsibility to protect it."

"Responsibility," Shirogane repeated flatly. Homurabi knew he hated the word. He stepped a bit away, in case Shirogane got angry enough to decide nothing around was worth saving, and so he was free to destroy everything. "Did Sawaki put you up to this?"

"I don't approve of meaningless violence, Shirogane."

"Meaningless…" Again Shirogane echoed one of Ryuuko's words, but Homurabi heard a grin in the word this time, and he took another step back. "If you must know, there was meaning to the violence before," Shirogane said. "I was angry. Even so, I was going to pass by, but the noise was very annoying."

"Don't you know what place this is?"

"That's none of my concern."

Ryuuko's frown became a bit sharper, and he gritted his teeth. But then he closed his eyes and sighed. He rested the butt of his weapon on the ground. "Children go here to play," Ryuuko said. "Now do you see?"

"You're so serious," Shirogane said, "when there are all these stupid penguins around you. And what looks to be an elephant. And a giraffe. How interesting: a giraffe."

"Isn't it spotted deer?" Kou asked, leaning down to poke the side of the stone animal with a steel-clawed finger. "The neck's not very long… You think it's a deer too, don't you, Ryuuko?"

"Kou," Ryuuko warned half-heartedly. "In any case, Shirogane, you can't randomly decide that you hate a place and destroy it. Fortunately, no one died, but this is something I can't allow to happen again."

"I don't see why I have to care," Shirogane said. "You're my counterpart, aren't you?" He turned his back to Ryuuko and said dryly over his shoulder: "Then I leave you to do something about it."

Shirogane walked past Homurabi to the entrance. The whole area, including the entrance, was wound with yellow police tape and blocked by metal construction signs, but they could easily bypass such things. What surprised Homurabi was that they weren't going to fight. It was a bit of a disappointment, but he didn't care about the place either, or care to fight with someone like Kou. He smirked and also made to turn away. "Your brave little company's been very lucky," Homurabi commented in a burst of parting malice. "So just leave and don't come back."

Ryuuko didn't seem to hear, and Homurabi felt more than a little frustrated with him. Just looking at him being all cool and composed was annoying. It didn't seem like he was afraid of Shirogane either. Ryuuko raised the end of his weapon from the ground and seemed to test the weight of it in his hands.

"Shirogane," Ryuuko said. "Is that your answer?"

His voice had assumed the clear, perfect quality of dry ice, and on hearing it, his two companions became all at once deathly serious. Shisui opened his eyes in a sharp-eyed glare resembling the one that was already etched on Kou's face, although they both remained silent. Homurabi involuntarily made a move back and looked over his shoulder to see what Shirogane would do.

Shirogane halted, but he didn't turn around or answer. He went on walking again.

"Shisui," Ryuuko said, and Shisui stepped forward and muttered something in his soft voice.

A sudden shift seemed to occur from the point where Shisui stood, like a wave of cool air passing along the ground to cover the whole area of the playground and beyond. At first, nothing seemed to really have happened, then Homurabi noticed that the sounds from outside had been completely snuffed out.

"The barrier's in effect," Shisui smilingly said. "With this, you don't have to hold back too much, Ryuuko."

"I appreciate it."

Homurabi snapped his gaze back to Ryuuko, but somehow Ryuuko was no longer on the spot he had previously been. He turned to his right almost on instinct, in time to catch a glimpse of Ryuuko as he passed him in a smooth leap. Homurabi had a stunned second to wonder if he was going to die just like that, but Ryuuko only glanced at him from the corner of his eye. There didn't seem to be any meaning to the glance: no anger, disdain, or even a need to understand. Or, if there was something, it was simply that Ryuuko saw him. His eyes were amazingly and annoyingly clear.

Ryuuko did a curious twist in the air and put one foot on the ground to propel himself up. He hung suspended in the air.

Shirogane had stopped walking when Shisui had recited the spell, and now he turned around fully and lifted his face. His expression was one of pure anger. Ryuuko lifted his scythe back, and then cut the air in front of him in a quick succession of strikes, light energy detaching from the blade and raining down damage on the ground where Shirogane stood.

…

Despite himself, Homurabi had been impressed. But only by a little, of course. That was also the point in the story where he usually stopped whenever he remembered the incident. If he had thought to ask Kou about it, he would have found that Kou's remembrance likewise edited out a few things. Or, to be more specific, it stopped five minutes after the point when Homurabi's did, completely leaving out the part where Ryuuko had kissed Shirogane.

…

Homurabi looked through the slit of the partly open door to see Sawaki standing in front of Shirogane's desk and Shirogane with his legs crossed over it, one arm thrown over his chair and the other bent at the elbow to idly support his chin. Shirogane closed his eyes and sighed through his nose, and Sawaki sighed more loudly and said, "Please stop sighing."

Shirogane half-opened his eyes to look to one side sullenly. "But you sighed yourself, didn't you?" He made a small impatient gesture with his hand. "When are you going to finish your report?"

"Please bear with this a bit longer," Sawaki said in tired tones, glancing at a sheaf of paper in his hand. "The hole that had been reported by one of the Children this morning had apparently already been sealed from the other side when my lord Homurabi got there." Sawaki had put enough gentle stress on his words that Homurabi, hiding behind the door, frowned. Sure enough, Sawaki remarked: "Unlike some people, the Rei appear to get some actual work done. Their promptness can be… _very inspiring_, don't you think?" But Shirogane merely snorted, and Sawaki continued with his report.

"Lastly, I've received news that the tears that have appeared in that sector I also told you about have successfully been mended. Three kokuchi were lost." Sawaki brought the paper down and finished offhandedly: "They might have entered the light world, in which case I don't really expect we'll get them back."

"I'll go look for them."

Sawaki started visibly. Shirogane pulled his feet from the desk and swung himself out of his chair, moving quickly towards the window.

"Wait!" Sawaki said. "What are you doing?"

Shirogane threw the windows open and spared Sawaki one final sullen glance. "Going out," he said, and disappeared out the window.

Homurabi's own mind was in a confused whirl: Shirogane didn't care about the kokuchi; he decapitated them on a daily basis. So why…?

Well, he had an idea why. Damn Sawaki for bringing up the light world anyway.

He turned from the door and started walking down the hall as fast as his robes allowed. And then, remembering that he could, he opened a path to the light world and hurriedly stepped in.

At first he thought that he had made a mistake and was back in his room, but a light tap on his shoulder alerted him to the presence of another person. Homurabi turned to face back with a snarl just a bit louder because he'd been surprised, and Shisui let go of his shoulder.

"Is there some reason why you're here?" Shisui asked, uneasy but still polite. "I hope it's not to fight."

"No," Homurabi said. He looked around, but no one else was there besides Shisui. Homurabi finally admitted to himself that he'd probably miscalculated.

Shisui smiled in sudden understanding. "Ah, you're looking for him, aren't you? You're in the wrong place, I'm afraid." He snapped his fingers, and a double door melted upwards from the floor. Shisui reached out, found the handles and opened the door for him. "This is the way," Shisui said when Homurabi hesitated too long at the lip of the opening.

"I'm just looking for my brother, that's all," Homurabi muttered crossly. "This has nothing to do with your stupid King. Or with you, for that matter."

"I understand," Shisui replied. "For my part, I'm looking after Ryuuko. Frankly, he needs someone to not trust for him. But it's not like it's a completely bad thing." He paused, as if debating if he were going to add something more. Then he said, tentatively: "Have your side ever considered a treaty?"

"No," Homurabi said without thinking. "Why?"

Shisui sighed. "Go on," he said, and pushed Homurabi through the door.

It was a storeroom of some sort, with a lot of piled boxes. Homurabi had started cursing himself for having fallen for a trick, but then stopped when he heard the persistent whining coming from outside. There was a window set in the middle of one wall, but it was covered almost completely by boxes. Homurabi pushed several boxes away and managed to free a pane. He peered out, squinting against the light.

Outside, Kou was on all fours, moving from side to side in a bid to catch Ryuuko's attention. Ryuuko was farther away, leaning against a tree and half-hidden by the green shadow of the leaves. He said once, clearly, "Kou, please stop." Which did not get him his desired reaction, of course. Kou doubled his efforts.

"Ryuuko," Kou wheedled, clutching at Ryuuko's coat. "Come on. Let's play."

Ryuuko did not reply, except to pull himself more into the shadow of the tree and his coat from Kou's hands.

"It's a clear afternoon," Kou insisted. "Why did you go outside if you're not going to enjoy it?"

"I was going to take a nap."

"Don't talk like an old man! Come on. Let's chase a few hakua or something."

"The hakua aren't for that, Kou." Ryuuko stopped for a yawn. "Will you patrol the grounds on the east side? I can sense the hakua being pretty agitated."

Kou stopped shifting from side to side. "And then you'll play with me, right?"

"…Right."

Kou scampered away with a crow of victory, leaving Ryuuko in the shade. Ryuuko was still for several moments until Kou had disappeared into the distance, and then, slowly, he sat up. He said: "What are you doing here?"

"Gah!" exclaimed Homurabi. But, looking more closely, Ryuuko was staring up into the branches, not at the storehouse window. Homurabi angled his head slightly to look at what was there as well, and so saw his dear brother lowering himself to the branch that was directly above Ryuuko, unmindful of how his silver hair was trailing almost to the ground.

The two looked at each other, the silence stretching until Shirogane must have remembered that Ryuuko had asked something, and his silence probably meant that he was waiting for an answer. And then Shirogane muttered his excuse: "I was looking for some kokuchi."

…

"How did it become like that?"

"Now, now," Shisui said. "It's not like it's a bad thing, right?"

Homurabi stopped to glare at the other King. And then he continued pacing the room and wringing his hands. "This comes from lack of supervision," he muttered. "I really should have watched my brother more…" Homurabi stopped pacing and pointed at Shisui sitting so calmly on his bed. "Now that I think of it, isn't this your fault? You should have been watching your stupid King!"

"You seem to be mistaking our duty as Kings," Shisui replied, his voice only a bit tight. He folded his hands on his lap. "Our point is not to 'supervise' the Direct Kings, but to support them. And, at any event, isn't harmony and balance the perfect ideal we're aiming for?"

"Yes," Homurabi said. "But not at the cost of my brother's body!"

Shisui wiped at invisible sweat on his face. "That _is_ a bit extreme," he allowed. "But I'm certain you're over-thinking it. Besides, that seems to imply that Ryuuko's going to…eat Shirogane or something."

"Of course that's what it means!"

"Oh." Shisui turned his head to one side, a nervous smile twitching on his face. It was the smile people often wore when they were in the same room as a crazy individual, and it was probably a good thing that Homurabi was too busy with his rant to notice it. "Oh. I see."

Homurabi narrowed his eyes. "You're not being serious enough about this! You don't seem to think at all of what this perfect balance of yours would mean."

"What _do_ you mean, I wonder?"

"It's like when this happened: I went down to the kitchen one night, and when I opened the refrigerator, it was full of taiyaki!"

Shisui's face reflected shock, which quickly changed to slightly frowning incomprehension. "Are your eating habits and choice of food really important?" he asked.

"It was because someone ate or threw away everything that was previously inside and stocked the refrigerator with taiyaki. And someone did it from your side! And I just remembered something else: One day, when I went to the bathroom, I opened the door and I heard the water running. There were splashing noises coming from the tub, but when I looked, no one was there."

After a pause, in which Homurabi huffed and shivered at the remembrance, Shisui asked: "Why are you suddenly telling a ghost story?"

"You're still missing the point! Everything has a shadow and a corresponding existence in the light world, right? If one or the other disappears, then both will. This applies to everything but us. Meaning, this balance is not just for people, but even places and things. And since my place seems to be connected with your place—"

Shisui nodded. Then he said, softly, "I've wondered who always ate my Belgian chocolates."

Maybe the idea came earlier, but it was at that point in the story when Homurabi really thought: If he wanted people to take him seriously, and not remind him of the insignificant theft of a box of chocolates or two, then maybe he should just take over the light world.

And what was Shisui complaining about? The first box of chocolates had been half-empty anyway.

…

_The left-out memory of the fight one day, several years ago:_

The ground burst in a shower of sharp stones and dust, and Homurabi covered his mouth and nose, getting teary-eyed from coughing. Ryuuko landed on the still intact ground in front of Shisui and Kou. When the smoke cleared a bit, Homurabi saw that Shirogane did not appear to have moved from his spot, but he had finally brought his sword out.

Shirogane did not bother with a fighting stance. He merely looked at Ryuuko and asked coldly: "Is fighting with me what you really want?"

"If my wish matters in this," Ryuuko said, "I would like to avoid fighting." He paused, and then he walked forward and, strangely enough, dematerialized his scythe. Homurabi saw Kou move at that, but Shisui, his face every bit as apprehensive as Kou's, flung one arm out to bar Kou's way.

Ryuuko stopped walking only when he had brought himself completely in the range of Shirogane's sword, and with probably no time to bring his weapon out if Shirogane decided to attack him. Shirogane regarded the gesture with a frown born from lack of understanding.

"I thought only an attack like that would make you stop long enough for us to have a talk," Ryuuko explained. "Now, Shirogane, will you listen to my request?"

Shirogane's eyes widened by the merest fraction, then narrowed to slits in his face. He seemed at once angry, suspicious, and contemptuous of the display. He raised his sword to rest the bladed edge against Ryuuko's throat, smirking widely at the lack of resistance. Finally, he said: "Why don't you ask more nicely? If you want, I'll even help you go down on your knees and beg."

Ryuuko did not move, but it was, apparently, too much for Kou, who broke away from Shisui to rush forward, with probably some idea of tackling Shirogane or pulling Ryuuko out of the way. Shirogane looked over Ryuuko's shoulder at Kou and lifted his other hand, but Ryuuko reacted to this by gripping his wrist and bringing his hand up a second before the spell could activate. The bolt of dark energy missed, though the force of it was strong enough to throw Kou back into the body of the giraffe-that-was-probably-a-deer and stun him for a moment.

"So that's what gets to you," Shirogane said in a strangely empty voice. He let go of the sword to lock his arm around Ryuuko's back, bringing his knee up into Ryuuko's stomach. Ryuuko gasped and let go of Shirogane's wrist, falling slightly forward, and Shirogane held him up again by the back of the neck and threw him on the ground. Ryuuko, however, had grabbed hold of Shirogane's arm in reflex before he fell, so instead they both went down, with Shirogane on top.

Shirogane grabbed behind him for his sword, his hand closing not on the hilt but on the blade. Holding the blade of the sword in both hands, and bleeding now from cut palms, he pushed the blade forward to cut across Ryuuko's neck, Ryuuko only managing to stop it by also gripping the blade with his hands, the blade cutting into his gloves and likewise drawing blood. When Ryuuko tried to push the blade away from him, Shirogane used the weight of his upper body to push the blade farther. The blade between them and their faces a few inches apart, Shirogane said: "I hate people like you."

From the rubble left of the stone animal, Kou saw what was happening and jumped to his feet, crying out Ryuuko's name. Ryuuko gripped the blade more tightly in his hands, and then he leaned forward and risked a cut on his neck to kiss Shirogane on the mouth.

Shirogane let go of the sword and threw himself back and off of Ryuuko.

"What happened?" Shisui asked. "I sensed quite a few hearts jump."

Ryuuko sat up and took a deep breath, one hand going for his throat and fingering the slight wound that showed on the skin under the gaping cut on the fabric. He set Shirogane's sword down at his side, glancing over at Shirogane. "You must be surprised," Ryuuko said to him by way of apology. "Because it looked like I was about to get killed, I had to think quickly. I only got the idea from a match with Kou."

"Kou?" Shirogane said softly. At the stares he was suddenly receiving, Kou brought his hands up and said: "It was a finger-wrestling match. It's an approved tactic!"

"Anyway, Shirogane," Ryuuko said into the new awkward silence, "will you listen?"

Shirogane stood up and silently dusted off his clothes. But he made no move to go away, so Ryuuko continued: "Rather than fighting each other all the time, I think it's better if we got along." Ryuuko pulled off his glove to inspect the cut on one of his hands, which was bleeding rather freely. Shirogane had not done anything with his wounds, and his hands were bleeding into his own clothes and the ground. Ryuuko, too, pulled his glove back on without doing anything about the wound. His gloves were black with blood, and the neck of his coat was dotted red. His voice however didn't waver. He said: "That's why I want you to make a promise with me."

"A promise?"

"A simple promise is fine," Ryuuko said. "Shirogane, will you preserve the balance between our worlds together with me?"

Shirogane said: "I don't really care for promises," and Ryuuko laughed, gently.

"You've probably never made any, right?"

Seemingly without thinking about it, Shirogane offered his hand to Ryuuko. Ryuuko grasped his hand, and Shirogane pulled him up. He let go of Ryuuko's hand and turned away.

"All right," he said. "I'll make that promise with you."

The others gaped at them, particularly Homurabi. Like Shirogane, he turned away, but additionally, he gritted his teeth.

"In exchange," Ryuuko said warmly, "I'll promise you something else. You can always come to me if you need help."

"Don't say 'always.' "

"Why not? It's a promise that lasts forever."

* * *

**Author's End Note:** "Fuwa Fuwa Time" was playing in my PC while I was writing the fight scene for this (if it can be considered a fight scene…), and it was a bit distracting in a funny way. It's the seventh chapter but the transitions are still bad! But anyway, this story is finally nearing its end. The un-funny end. I wonder how I'm going to manage it…I want to write something with lots of blood, but I think that sort of humor only works in Happy Three Friends, so I can't really do that here. For what it's worth, I'll try to write an appropriate ending for this. Thanks for reading this far. Hope you enjoyed it. :)


	8. Promoted Bishop I

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Monochrome Factor or any of its characters.

**Author's Note:** As it turns out, Lulu actually did think of Kou as Ryuuko's dog in the manga. Guess I shouldn't be too surprised; it's because he's really like a dog. He and Kengo must understand each other…

**Warning:** Excessive drinking (which I'm not trying to inspire people into doing, all right? You're not allowed to kill your liver if you're a minor!)

**

* * *

**

The King is Dead, Long Live the King

Chapter Eight: Promoted Bishop Part I

Sawaki had never been to a wedding before, much less organized one. From what he knew, there was a lot of sitting around involved, some sharing of wine and talking. He also vaguely remembered some detail about how the bride was expected to sew her own veil. Or was it that the bride had to rub some rice on her sash for good luck?

Sawaki wasn't sure about the details of either a traditional wedding or a modern one, and thought perhaps none of the others were. But then, Sawaki remembered Shirogane had asked for it, which must mean that Shirogane, at least, knew what sorts of rituals were followed.

Between informing Shisui of the marriage, taking care of the kokuchi, and making sure that Lulu and the other Children were kept amused enough to not cause trouble, one would think that Sawaki had little time for research, especially since Shirogane had only given him three days to prepare. But Sawaki had always been diligent. So when he returned to the shadow realm from his visit to Shisui, he also took back several videotapes with him, which he watched in his room until even his eyes and not just his face was red.

Movies were probably not the best material there was for great understanding, but they did offer up some quick facts. If he had been less thorough, he could have saved his peace of mind and stuck to one genre: general, which would have given him a perfectly normal, perfectly understandable view of how things should be. But Sawaki liked his information to come from more than one source. And so what he learned amounted to this:

That comedy weddings involved jumpy choirs, much flinging of food, the groom getting married by mistake to the priest, and the bride running away in a flounce of skirts. Not necessarily all at once, or in that order. (Sawaki considered if he should put a chain around Ryuuko's ankle, just to be safe, but Shirogane would never allow it.)

Drama weddings had rain, pregnancy, much crying and suffering quietly, and the bride being in love with the groom's best friend, which made Sawaki feel distinctly thankful that Shirogane did not have a best friend, or have Children the normal way.

The more explicit movies involved less of the actual wedding and more of what happened during the wedding party after, in the various hidden niches in the garden. There were enough scenes which showed such unimaginable uses of innocent food stolen from the buffet table that Sawaki considered if he should risk Lulu's wrath by not baking any cake. Sawaki decided to just carefully guard the cake when the time comes, and to dispense with fruit bouquets altogether.

And so, sighing and muttering darkly, Sawaki had put everything about the marriage in order. If he felt just a little malevolent towards Ryuuko, the indirect, unknowing cause of his pain, he was probably a bit justified. Nobody, after all, should have to shudder at seeing a carrot stick.

The form of Sawaki's revenge on Ryuuko was simple, and involved Lulu's easily enlisted help.

…

For the second time, Ryuuko woke up with someone leaning over him, and wondered if it was a regular thing in the shadow world.

"Lulu," Ryuuko said wearily, and the girl gave a delighted giggle to find him awake, jumping off the bed and pulling on his hand so he was forced to sit up. Lulu skipped to the foot of the bed and leaned forward with her arms linked behind her.

"Ryuuko-sama," she said, "Lulu's going to help you prepare, okay?"

Somehow Ryuuko detected a sense of threat in her words, but the small, enduring measure of trust he gave everyone kept him from turning her out of the room or running away. Instead, he got up from the bed and turned away from her, shrugging on his coat and dealing with the fastenings swiftly with fingers used to doing the task every morning.

Lulu made a disappointed sound. The sound was close enough to what Kou would have made in a similar situation that Ryuuko was reminded of the absence of his Child.

He had left Kou and Shirogane near morning to rest. He had been tired enough to have fallen asleep in the room they were all previously in, except Kou and Shirogane had started growling at each other to "Stop staring at Ryuuko's sleeping face, you pervert" (Kou), and "Get away from him, you brat" (Shirogane). When Kou's fangs began to grow, Ryuuko realized his continued presence was probably at fault, so after calming everyone down, he left to sleep somewhere else. But Ryuuko had felt the glares still being exchanged by the two behind his back, and it had worried him enough that he had only gone to an adjacent room.

Ryuuko turned around to find Lulu pouting. "Where is Kou?"

"Really, Ryuuko-sama." Lulu brushed her hair from her shoulder and set her hands on her hips. "You're supposed to ask about Shirogane-sama first."

Ryuuko adjusted the neck of his coat with all the appearance of calmness that he didn't feel. It was apparently enough to fool Lulu though, who sighed in mild annoyance and scuffed the carpet with her foot.

"They're still in that room," Lulu said.

Ryuuko sighed. "I was afraid of that."

"Instead of that, Ryuuko-sama…" Lulu went over to a chair, where a pile of fabric lay where she must have dropped it earlier to wake him. She pulled something from the pile and held it in front of her, beaming. "What do you think?"

Ryuuko blinked and took an unconscious step back, understanding immediately.

Lulu snapped her fingers, and a kokuchi appeared to nudge the chair with the pile of clothes closer to her. The door was behind her too. She must have known to keep the door behind her.

Lulu kept smiling, though her large purple eyes were too sharp now for comfort.

"It's pretty, isn't it?"

"Even forgetting that it's a dress," Ryuuko said slowly, "I can see right through it."

"Then, what about this?"

…

The faint grayness under Shirogane's eyes could have been shadows because of his hair, but Kou noticed that Shirogane's pallor had now taken on a cast of stone. The absence of anything else wrong with him, though, convinced Kou that there was no justice in the shadow world.

Kou took a deep breath and poured himself a shot from the new bottle, thinking of whether they should have stopped at the previous one after all. Seeing the alcohol fill up his glass was starting to scare him, actually. He sipped at it cautiously, thinking of how the texture made it seem solid rather than liquid, as if he was trying to drink shredded kokuchi. Kou couldn't help it; he winced. Shirogane glanced at him in icy amused contempt.

"You look like the insect you are," Shirogane said in a not-quite slur, reaching out and grabbing the bottle from Kou. He hesitated a moment, as if unsure of what to do with the bottle, and then he also poured himself a drink. One other thing that wasn't fair, Kou thought, darkly.

"That's not fair," Kou said.

"Ryuuko already gave his answer," Shirogane said, frowning and setting the bottle back on the table. "Stop being such a child."

"I mean," Kou said, "I mean, yeah, it's your bottle. But. You know…" Kou looked up suddenly. "Wait, did you just make a pun?"

Shirogane ignored him in favor of finishing his drink, which Kou took as a challenge for him to return to his own. In the span of less than a minute, the papery feeling in his throat had lovingly migrated to his stomach. Kou winced again.

There was a scrambling sound from the next room, and what could have been kokuchi hissing, muffled to a fine whine by the thick wall. Something heavy like a body thumping on the carpet. Kou considered for a moment if it should mean something to him. But then, he thought, if something was going wrong in the shadow world, let Shirogane be surprised later and deal with it.

Shirogane put down his glass. Then he said, face serious: "Are we really resolving something with this?"

"Sure we are," Kou said easily. "We hate each other's guts. So…" Kou waved his hand holding the glass in the air to capture the idea he just knew was there. "If we destroy them, then it's okay, right?"

Shirogane glared. "That's a foolish idea."

"If you think that's stupid, then you're not yet drunk," Kou said, motioning to the bottle. "Go on," he urged.

"As you said, it's my bottle," said Shirogane, retracting the bottle from the table like a sullen child himself and making Kou smile.

"But you know," Kou began, forcing his brain to start working and choose his words carefully when he saw Shirogane tense up. "What I don't get is, you know, Ryuuko. Always knew you were a bastard, but I don't think Ryuuko thinks he's allowed to be selfish now and then."

Shirogane looked over his glass at Kou. Kou almost thought that maybe he understood, but then Shirogane said: "Ryuuko's not a bastard."

"Hey, I didn't say that!" Kou scratched his head roughly in exasperation. "I said this selfishness thing. You know. When you think you want a…a hamburger, and you don't think of whether you're going to hurt someone when you buy one."

"Does he even know how to eat that?"

Great. Now Shirogane was joking with him? Kou wondered if it was an effect of the alcohol, or if Shirogane reacted to stress that way. Either way, Kou found it annoying. He swiped at the air until he was able to grab the bottle back from Shirogane.

"I know," Shirogane now said. "You're saying that Ryuuko only agreed to this because he's not selfish."

Kou blinked at the bitter tone, and then he released his breath in a good-natured curse and kicked Shirogane under the table. Shirogane jumped slightly and glared at Kou, but Kou only leaned back in his chair and smiled.

"Did I ever tell you about the pigeons?" Kou asked.

"You ate them for dinner?" Shirogane guessed sweetly. Kou waved off the insult as easily as he did Shirogane's glare.

"Ryuuko's in the story too, you know. What happened was, we were in a street somewhere I don't remember. Clean street, except there were pigeons. Really fat birds. You know. And noisy."

"I imagine," Shirogane put in darkly.

"Anyway, I was going to chase them away. Know how they waddle around a bit before they seem to remember they can fly?" Kou moved his fingers in the air to imitate the birds, but dropped his hand at Shirogane's uncomprehending frown and sighed. Now what happened to his humor? "But then I caught Ryuuko looking at them and he seemed really…" Kou paused. Decided he had no other word for it. "Alone. Even though there were all these stupid pigeons and, hell, I was there, right?"

Shirogane had taken his glass from the table, and now, Kou saw, he was running his finger lightly over the rim. "So?"

"So," Kou continued in a soft mumble, "I figured he wanted to maybe chase the pigeons himself. Or. You know. Feed them or something. Except he was just looking at the damn things. So I dragged him to a bakeshop and convinced him to buy us a lot of bread, and we pelted the things with it. Well, Ryuuko broke off his bread in really little pieces." Kou fiddled with his glass. "He looked confused. Guess I was a bit disappointed. But, see, when we got back, he noticed the crumbs on his gloves, and he smiled. Which made me realize that it took him that long to find out he was happy."

Shirogane tilted his glass. "Because of pigeons?"

"Yeah."

They considered that.

Kou yawned into his hand and watched Shirogane think about it. "I really hate you, you know," Kou said. All at once, he had felt the need to say it. "Not just your guts. Which I hope feels really bad right now."

Shirogane looked at him. Then he smirked and tapped one nail against his glass. "I never get drunk."

"Even though you probably never tried drinking before," Kou muttered. He put the bottle back on the table with a sharp grin of his own. "I've drunk with yakuza. No one's ever managed to drink me under the table."

"Would you care to test that out?"

…

Ryuuko almost thought that he was going to make it out the door, and then Lulu's whip flicked into an arc of violent life, congealing into its real form to tug Ryuuko back in a python's embrace. Ryuuko moved against it for a moment, falling down to his knees as his body started to go numb. He stopped squirming when the bands tightened around him and caused him to fall forward on his face.

Ryuuko turned his head to follow Lulu with his eyes as she moved towards the door and closed it again with a giggle.

"You don't have to be so excited, Ryuuko-sama. We still have lots of time to get you changed."

That, in fact, was what he had been afraid of. Ryuuko's uneasy frown was replaced by a more open expression of dismay. "Bringing your weapon out in an enclosed space is reacting excessively, don't you think?"

Lulu pouted. "But you moved so suddenly." She gestured to the kokuchi, which were crawling on the walls like disturbed lizards. "You hurt my kokuchi too."

"Only thrown them back," Ryuuko muttered, though he did feel a bit guilty. They hadn't been doing anything to actively hurt him, after all.

"What's so wrong with this gown anyway, Ryuuko-sama? It's pretty, and I'm sure it'll look pretty on you. Don't you think Shirogane-sama's going to like it?"

Ryuuko shuddered, refusing to look at the gown, which Lulu proceeded to throw on top of him to see if it fit. "Lulu," he said in his most reasonable voice. "It's a _gown._"

"Hmph." Lulu thankfully pulled the gown from him again, throwing it over the back of the chair. "You're wearing a coat, Ryuuko-sama. A very long coat. The only thing missing are the frills."

Ryuuko narrowed his eyes just slightly. "I don't remember my coat having a corset. And my coat does not leave my shoulders mostly bare," Ryuuko pointed out.

"But the gloves make up for it. See?" Lulu unfolded their white length. "And it's not like you have scars you want to conceal." Lulu smiled suggestively. "Do you?"

"It's not that," Ryuuko muttered. "Let's just keep things from being too…being too interesting." He looked pointedly at the other gowns scattered on the floor.

"Ne, Ryuuko-sama…" Lulu sat on her heels beside him, resting her elbows on her knees and her chin in her hands. "You were trying to escape, weren't you?"

The question, or more properly, statement, delivered so simply and without the pretense of not understanding, made Ryuuko pause from unobtrusively weakening the bonds around him. He looked at Lulu to see how much she knew. Finally, Ryuuko sighed. "You don't know that for certain," Ryuuko said gently. After a polite pause, he asked: "Will you release me?"

"Of course, Ryuuko-sama." The whip loosened around him, and Lulu flicked it back and let it disappear.

Ryuuko stood up from the floor and walked over to the side of the bed, absently moving one hand as he sat down to sweep out his hair so that it fell over the sheets behind him. With the way things stood, he knew that he'd lost whatever chance he had to run away, which didn't trouble him as much as he'd expected.

"Sometimes, Lulu," he said, "a decision can be frightening, right?"

"I don't know," Lulu answered. There was a pout in her voice which translated what she said to 'I don't want to know,' and Ryuuko smiled, though a bit sadly.

"You don't have to worry about Shirogane," Ryuuko said. From Lulu's slight start, Ryuuko knew that he had correctly read the concern on her face. In some ways, she was really like Kou, which made Ryuuko want her to cheer up a bit. "I already said I'm all right with the marriage, didn't I?"

"Even if you agreed to it, if you don't really feel like it, Shirogane-sama's going to be sad, you know," Lulu warned.

"I'm not doing this half-heartedly," Ryuuko said, though at that point, he wasn't certain at all. He remembered how Shirogane had offered to ask him again so he could give whatever answer he wanted to give. He'd tried to sidestep the matter then as well. Perhaps he really wasn't being fair to Shirogane.

"Hmm," Lulu droned, and then abruptly seemed to regain her momentum. "Then, Ryuuko-sama, you'll allow Lulu to help, right?"

Ryuuko looked at her extended hand and sighed.

…

"As a King, my alcohol tolerance is higher than a normal human being's." Shirogane snorted. "And obviously still higher than a mere Child's."

"You don't know that! I'm…I'm heavier than you," Kou argued.

"And I've been drinking longer than you."

"Face like that, let's see _who_ believes you drink."

Shirogane gave him a slightly watery glare. "Ryuuko should have made you one of his Children when you were ten. Then we'll see who…" Shirogane trailed off, not even remembering to close his mouth again, and Kou crowed in triumph.

"You just forgot what you were saying, didn't you?" Kou made a little bow to the bottle in gratitude before looking up at Shirogane with a smug smile. "That's a win for me, right? Let's see…what punishment did we decide on again? Loser steals Ryuuko's…tea leaves, was it…he's going to get mad, really. Good luck, Shirogane-san…and winner," Kou finished with a wide grin, "gets to sleep on Ryuuko's scythe-sash thingy, which you wouldn't know but I'm telling you is really soft—"

"You're drunk," said Ryuuko from behind him. Ryuuko actually sounded relieved when he said this, but at the moment, Kou's brain was busy with the thought of 'Oh, shit, it's Ryuuko!' to bother noting the nuances of his voice. He did an abrupt turn and pressed his palms together in front of his face, not even noticing when he toppled his chair to its side. "I'm sorry, Ryuuko! It's Shirogane's fault!"

"Traitor," Shirogane said in reflex. Kou turned around and stuck his tongue out at Shirogane, who was pouring himself another drink with frowning concentration. Ryuuko touched Kou's shoulder briefly, then moved forward to right the fallen chair and sit down on it.

It was only then that Kou got a good look at him and promptly froze.

"Okay, Shirogane-san." Kou laughed a bit shakily, pulling himself another chair. "No one wins, I guess. Didn't think I was that drunk."

Shirogane's hand halted over the stem of his glass. Then he asked, tentatively: "You're seeing Ryuuko in…?"

Ryuuko's eyes were shadowed by his hair, so neither of the two could be sure of his expression. But Ryuuko took the bottle from the table, brought it to his lips and started drinking down what remained in it before anyone else could say another word. That, at least, they understood.

"Shared hallucination," Kou suggested helpfully after Ryuuko paused to breathe. Then Kou burst in a fit of giggles and pulled Ryuuko in a hug which knocked the bottle from his hand. Shirogane automatically reached for the bottle, rescuing it before it hit the floor. "Such a cute one too!" Kou breathed, rubbing his face against Ryuuko, who brought both hands up to push Kou away.

"Kou. Your breath…"

Shirogane went to the glass cabinet, took a glass for Ryuuko and went back to the table with it and another bottle, the one Shisui had sent over and which he'd advised Shirogane to drink in moderation. Coming from Shisui, it was probably serious advice. He poured Ryuuko a glass, which Ryuuko accepted gratefully. Shirogane poured Kou a glass too, slapped Kou back into functioning awareness, enough so he let go of Ryuuko anyway, and shoved the glass at him.

Shirogane sat down and gulped his own drink, which he didn't bother to remind the others came from the previous bottle. It meant he'd probably be less drunk than Kou by the end, but he didn't see how the information might matter to Ryuuko, and he certainly did not want Kou to know.

He sloshed the contents of his glass around and watched the others down their second and third glasses. Now, Kou, Shirogane thought, pass out already, damn you. He punctuated the thought in his mind with a sip from his own glass.

"At least Lulu wasn't very thorough," Ryuuko muttered in weary resignation, lifting the hem of his skirt slightly. "I got to keep my boots. Little else though," Ryuuko reflected, and did not understand when the other two choked on their drinks.

Kou passed out.

…

Homurabi finally found Sawaki walking down a hallway with his customary papers in hand. He was speaking with Lulu, and Homurabi wondered if Sawaki had been issuing orders to _his_ Children while he wasn't looking. Homurabi pouted at the thought and moved quickly forward to intercept them.

"Sawaki!" The two stopped and looked at him in surprise, and Homurabi slowed his steps, cursing himself for shouting. He took a deep breath and inspected his fingers, thinking it was probably not yet late to try for nonchalance.

"What is it, my lord?" Sawaki's voice had enough respect mixed with the impatience that Homurabi decided to forgive him. Well, he could always decide on a later punishment if he remembered it.

"Since this is an…important event…" Homurabi refrained from making fists with his hands; his nails would never have allowed it. "I was wondering what everyone is supposed to do."

Sawaki was ready enough with an explanation, though he gave it a bit distractedly. "Well, first, we gather inside the chapel. There are all these parts where people have to stand and sit down again, and the choir sings…" Sawaki trailed off and glanced over at a group of kokuchi, probably imagining what kind of voice the things would produce if asked to sing. He shook his head. "But we can skip all that and go to the relevant parts. I'll be standing as the priest. Nothing really needs to be done by anyone else except be there as witnesses. The important thing seems to be that the two parties give vocal affirmation that they agree to be joined. A sort of contract if you will, which they will seal with a kiss—"

"Kiss?" said Homurabi faintly.

"And then the ceremony will officially be over and we all move to the garden," Sawaki went on, frowning down at his papers. "Might I remind you that the food cannot be taken away from the table. That is very important, my lord."

Homurabi stood speechless for a moment while Lulu slapped Sawaki's back and tried to tug Sawaki's papers from him. "Sawaki-chan is so busy!"

"Lulu," Sawaki warned with a long-suffering sigh, tugging the papers back. And then he looked up at Homurabi again. "But I must say it's very admirable how you've managed to quietly accept Ryuuko as joint ruler of the shadow world," Sawaki said. "Shirogane should be happy."

With the way he had said it, he might as well have added 'that bastard' in the end, but Homurabi also let that slide. He frowned, shaking himself from his stupor. "What are you talking about?"

"Well, Homurabi-sama," Lulu said. "It's obvious, isn't it? Shirogane-sama and Ryuuko-sama are getting married after all."

"So that gives Ryuuko a significant position even here in the shadow world," Sawaki picked up Lulu's thought. "I'm not sure what this would mean myself, but I doubt that Shisui will settle for less than Ryuuko being given the same King status in the shadow world. Of course, we can push for the same thing for Shirogane on their side."

"Ryuuko-sama's a Direct King after all," Lulu said, giggling. "I wonder if he'll stay here?"

"If he does," Sawaki said. "I hope it means Shirogane will finally be more serious with his work."

Sawaki walked away from them with a negligent wave over his shoulder, but Homurabi didn't notice, still busy absorbing the information he'd just heard. He mentally slapped himself for not grasping the full extent of the situation more quickly. There had never been three Kings for one side. And if one came down to it, there was no need for so many Kings, was there? But like Lulu had said, Ryuuko was a Direct King, and Homurabi knew which King would be considered unnecessary and replaceable.

Damn Ryuuko, who just seemed to receive everything without having to ask to.

Lulu poked Homurabi's side with a finger, and had to jump away when the edge of her dress spontaneously combusted.

* * *

**Author's End Note: **More of this later. And it's a few days early, but Merry Christmas everyone! It's actually starting to get cold where I am. Last night, I ran an errand in a t-shirt and shorts too, and my hair kept me more warm than my clothes did, which was weird. I also saw a cloth or plastic igloo on the roof of one house. The igloo had an opening on top, and a Mr. Santa balloon pops out at intervals, followed by a snowman. (I guess he's called Frosty, isn't he?) It was pretty amazing, really. Our house doesn't have anything vaguely Christmas about it, not even a stupid tree, so I was a bit envious, though what a snowman was going to do for me I don't know. Isn't it strange that its mouth is made of buttons the same as its eyes?


	9. Promoted Bishop II

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Monochrome Factor or any of its characters.

**Author's Note:** There's this line I came across while playing Persona 3: 'Two in harmony surpasses one in perfection.' I thought it sounded remarkably Japanese in its thinking, and that it explained the situation of Shirogane and Ryuuko well (?). Hahaha, just kidding. For this chapter, Sawaki has a lot of lines after all. But then, everyone kind of talks a lot. It was unexpected even for me. Can I use the excuse of having allowed the story to write itself?

**

* * *

**

The King is Dead, Long Live the King

Chapter Nine: Promoted Bishop Part II

They eased Kou onto a spare bed because Ryuuko wasn't willing to leave him on the floor. Shirogane had not much cared, satisfied enough with the thought that, while asleep, it was impossible even for Kou to cause trouble, and Shirogane also had no need to share Ryuuko with him. But now, watching Ryuuko kneel by the bed and pull the covers around Kou, Shirogane amended this last thought sourly: He wouldn't have to share Ryuuko if only Ryuuko ever got done worrying about the brat.

Kou brought one arm up above his head and snored. The snore changed halfway to a low animal growl, and Ryuuko asked: "Do you think he's all right?" The concern in his voice made Shirogane twitch, but Shirogane held down the urge to murder Kou there and then and only replied with a quick, irritable "I hope not." Ryuuko sighed at the less than encouraging reply, reaching out and patting Kou's head. Kou moved his head into the touch, and after a while his breathing grew steady with normal sleep.

Ryuuko removed his hand from where it now rested on Kou's forehead. Then he leaned forward on his elbows and said, gently: "Sleep well, Kou." The whole business might have irritated Shirogane a great deal more, if he hadn't been distracted by something else.

From where he stood at Ryuuko's back, and with most of Ryuuko's hair having fallen over his shoulders, Shirogane could see the back of Ryuuko's unprotected neck. It was really careless of Ryuuko, Shirogane reflected, although perhaps it meant that he was being trusted, and he was just a little glad about it. He probably had Lulu to thank for it as well, because there was no veil in the way. The next time Lulu annoyed him, he had to remember to count to ten before he shoved her away.

When Ryuuko did not immediately straighten up and instead allowed his head to fall on his arms above the bed, Shirogane stepped closer and, without thinking, moved his finger up Ryuuko's neck to the hairline. Ryuuko shuddered and quickly covered his nape with his hand, skirts rustling as he pulled himself clear of Shirogane's finger.

"Please don't," Ryuuko said, looking back at Shirogane over his shoulder with a frown deep enough to be disguising embarrassment.

"No wonder you always keep it covered," Shirogane observed idly, hiding a smile himself, and for the moment even forgetting his annoyance with Kou. He sat down a little ways from Ryuuko, resting his back against the side of the bed. Curious, he asked: "Do you have other sensitive spots?"

Ryuuko pressed his cheek against the covers of the bed and sighed through his nose, not meeting Shirogane's eyes. A moment later, Ryuuko made a vague answer that could have been 'No' and just as easily could have been 'I guess,' muffled by the knuckles of his hand. He moved slightly. Half-closing his eyes, he muttered, unmistakably this time: "Your bed is very soft, Shirogane."

If that was Ryuuko's idea of changing the topic, or possibly, impossibly, of furthering it, Shirogane found it very amusing indeed. "Is it?" Shirogane asked, deciding to play along.

"Yes," Ryuuko said, "It is." And with no more warning than this, Ryuuko closed his eyes and fell asleep against the bed.

…

Sawaki put a hand against his temple and started rubbing circles into the skin. With everything that was happening—or _not_ happening, he mused, looking at the assembled Children blinking back at him and nodding for them to wait more—he was starting to believe that his headache was never going to go away.

"Where is he?" he asked aloud, and Lulu, who had wandered from her seat and started fiddling with the furniture, looked up at him and tried to hide a broken piece of pillar behind her back.

"Who?" Lulu asked conversationally, throwing the shard behind her without looking at another Child, who rose from his seat with an indignant "Hey!" Sawaki sighed and leaned against the pulpit, tapping his fingers against one corner. "Well," he said. "The four of them, I guess." He paused, then continued in an employee-whose-crazy-boss's-back-is-turned hiss: "Why is even he missing?"

"Homu-chin?" Lulu guessed, and Sawaki nodded.

"We met him this morning. He knows where we should be." Sawaki frowned but didn't comment when he noticed Lulu's gaze stray again towards the garden, where the food was. He knew she was already trying her best, and it was amazing that she'd managed to keep her seat for as long as she'd done and still not tried to steal any cake. The only way he knew to keep her happy was to offer up his limbs to a bear hug, but he wasn't doing that for Shirogane. "And those two are getting married. How can they miss their own wedding? As for that other one, I was hoping he'd get lost."

Lulu nodded knowingly. "You don't like Ryuuko-sama's puppy much, do you?"

"He's too blindly following." Sawaki made a dismissive movement with his hand. "He'll probably lick Ryuuko's hand if he's asked to."

"Isn't Sawaki-chan also that sort of character?"

"I'm not," Sawaki said, managing not to scream it at Lulu, who had moved behind him and was now adjusting the ribbon in his hair. "Stop that," he said, and Lulu jumped back before he could bat her hands away. She giggled behind her hand for a moment, but when she saw that Sawaki was not about to do anything more interesting than sigh, she linked her hands behind her back and started to pace.

"This is so boring," she whined loudly, and Sawaki turned his head to glance at her. In Sawaki's world, unfortunate incidents were preceded by such a statement, and more often than not coming from her. His dread grew when some of the other Children started muttering their agreement.

"Should someone look for Homurabi-sama?" Sawaki tested. The Children merely slouched further in their seats, and someone at the back took out a blade and started spinning it for comfort. One said: "That's boring too."

"Then we wait a little longer," Sawaki sighed, bringing his hand up again to his forehead. And remembering to dangle the reward in front of them: "Later, everyone can eat, trade insults with the Rei in the light world, or kill things until you are satisfied. And no one—" Sawaki gritted his teeth but forced himself to continue: "—will be assigned cleaning duty."

Except me, Sawaki finished to himself, but had to smile when the other Children cheered. The promise seemed to have put Lulu in a better mood as well, although she had acquired a thoughtful smile that Sawaki immediately distrusted.

"Ne, ne, Sawa-chan," Lulu whispered, waving for him to move closer. It was a statement of how much he'd gotten used to her that Sawaki did not even wince at the mangling of his name, and only went over to where she had retreated. "Since we're stuck here anyway until they arrive," Lulu said, "why don't we have a bet?"

"Bet?" Sawaki frowned. It was suspicious, of course, especially since she wasn't including the other Children in it, but a bet couldn't be too dangerous. "What kind of bet?"

"Well…" Lulu scraped a speck of dust from the floor with her shoe and looked at Sawaki from the corner of her eye. "Everyone else must be wondering it too. Why would Shirogane-sama and Ryuuko-sama be late? I mean, Ryuuko-sama is never late, is he? So Lulu thought, maybe…" She inclined her head. "The gown was too successful, you think?"

Sawaki coughed discreetly and wished she would take the hint. "I have no idea what you mean, Lulu," he said. "And you also obviously do not know what you mean."

"Lulu does know!" she pouted, and Sawaki sighed again. "So I was wondering," Lulu went on, mouth twisting in a gleeful smirk, "Who do you think attacks, and who's on the receiving end?"

Sawaki laughed forcefully. "Gossiping about our superiors is hardly fitting behavior, Lulu!" 'Especially when one of those superiors might kill you for it if he finds out, you idiot,' Sawaki did not say.

'But Sawaki-chan also has ideas too, right?' Lulu also did not say. What she did say aloud was: "It's not gossiping. It's betting. And there's nothing to do anyway," she huffed. "So why not?"

"Probably because of a thing called respect."

"But they're the ones who are late," Lulu pointed out, and Sawaki frowned; he hated lateness. "Those two aren't the only ones missing though," he said after a while.

"That's true…but they can't all be somewhere together, can they? That Kou, he's probably just lost. And Homurabi-sama's been acting funny, he probably won't show…" Lulu shrugged, and then finished in a happy singsong: "Which leaves us with Shirogane-sama and Ryuuko-sama being late for their own wedding!"

"Well." Sawaki coughed.

"So what do you think, Sawaki-chan? I think Shirogane-sama's the seme. I can't imagine him taking a meek stance in anything. But I guess it's also a question of who's stronger? Though I'm not sure…"

Sawaki had wondered about it, in fact, but he wasn't going to tell her that. He furrowed his brow and crossed his arms, pretending he was only thinking about it now. "I thought it was a matter of…er, preference," Sawaki said, fighting not to blush.

"That's obvious," Lulu said.

"And. Well," Sawaki said. He pulled at his glove. "Can't there be a bet for nothing happening?"

Lulu looked at him. Then she started laughing. "You're so pure-hearted, Sawaki-chan!"

Sawaki felt his eyes widen at that, and his hand moved on its own to cover her mouth before the other Children could take notice. Lulu kept laughing against his hand, and Sawaki growled, "All right, I'll think about it, but please stop." He released Lulu after she'd calmed down, and then he sighed and looked up at the smooth expanse of ceiling.

"Ryuuko," Sawaki said.

"Ryuuko-sama?"

"If we base this on a study of Shirogane's behavior more than anything," Sawaki explained, "It is quite obvious that while he might make the first move, Shirogane has enough ideas about affection, at least when it involves that person, that he would consider the other's feelings and therefore stop at a point where he feels the other would be able to remain comfortable with him, and which would probably not go beyond what they might do as friends. Ryuuko, on the other hand, has always been reserved but thoughtful of other people. Providing he gets what Shirogane's trying to tell him, Ryuuko would take the initiative, right?"

"Haa," Lulu said. The dead disbelief in that one syllable made Sawaki frown, if only because he wasn't used to people thinking his theories were wrong.

"You're dissatisfied with something?"

"No, no, Sawa-chan," Lulu hastily replied, waving her hands to dispel his glare. "Well, I guess it won't be a real bet if we decide on the same person… It's just that I'm really going with Shirogane-sama on this one. Because he's the control freak, and Ryuuko-sama's just too cute to actually do anything himself."

It was Sawaki's turn to look at Lulu doubtfully. "You're telling me two millennia of existence and he never…"

"Women's intuition," Lulu said, "I guess?"

"You're using that as an excuse?" At Lulu's smile, Sawaki tapped his fingers on his knees and nodded. "Twenty kokuchi. And the three hakua I was able to find yesterday. As for your bet, why don't you just be quiet for the rest of the day if you lose?"

Lulu pouted, but she held out her hand to Sawaki so they could shake on it.

"There's just one problem," Lulu said, and Sawaki tensed up but nodded for her to go on.

"Well, this, you see, um…How do we know if our bet won?"

Sawaki frowned at her and considered. If she stayed around any longer, he couldn't guarantee the safety of the cake. He was also a bit curious, and Lulu was a bad liar. "Why don't you check it out?" Sawaki said.

"Eeh?" Lulu twiddled her thumbs and peeked at Sawaki through her lashes. "Just Lulu?"

She was also a coward. "Why not?" Sawaki said, turning away from her. "But remember, if you get caught: It's all you."

…

While there were two insensible Rei in the shadow world, one of who also happened to be their Direct King, the Rei on the other side were all very much awake indeed. Most, unconcerned or pretending to be, had obediently taken the missions Shisui had assigned them, although they still checked with him now and then, and one had refused to leave unless promised to be called immediately when information became available from Kou. The tension was the kind Shisui imagined led to bodies getting sunk in Tokyo Bay. He tried not to analyze what exactly they were waiting for, or if it was politic of him to wish Shirogane good luck.

Shisui was not exactly Shirogane's friend, although the length of time that they had known each other seemed enough to make them friends by default. If anything, Shisui was Shirogane's friend by virtue of being Ryuuko's. This made it hard for him to decide on a move, especially since, while his allegiance was first and foremost always to Ryuuko, he wasn't at all sure if being on Ryuuko's side didn't actually mean taking Shirogane's side as well.

Shisui sat in the middle of his bed and absently twisted the sheets covering his knees between his fingers. He had been thankful when everyone had finally left him for a while, but Shisui soon realized that, in any case, he couldn't sleep. And so now he brooded, playing with a memory in his mind, of the time when he and Ryuuko had heard news about a human defeating a kokuchi. Before he became a Rei and a King, Shisui had of course known what it was like to be human, but it was different for Ryuuko, and that time was when Shisui had first taken any real notice of the difference.

"Humans are amazing," Ryuuko had said, fondly and in wonderment. "That's one strength we will never know as Rei." And twisting around to look at him: "I hope, Shisui, that I haven't given you much cause to be sorry."

"Eh?"

"…Since you were dragged from that place."

Shisui had smiled at Ryuuko's blunt tact. "That's not an elegant way to put it," he said. "But we're working to support that world. I think I can learn to be glad of that."

Ryuuko had clasped his shoulder, squeezed it once in wordless thanks and let go. After a while, though, Ryuuko said: "I want to be part of that world too. I want to see how people live. It must be interesting, right, Shisui?" Ryuuko had laughed softly to show that he wasn't being serious, but Shisui had been able to sense the undercurrents of doubt and guilt that such a remark might mean he was being derelict in his duties. Ryuuko had always cared too much, and not for himself.

It was why Shisui had tried to help Ryuuko in little ways the other wouldn't notice and therefore wouldn't feel guilty about, and why Shirogane, who Ryuuko seemed to have acknowledged as a precious friend, had as much leeway as he had done in the light world. (Shisui had schemed and had had to persuade a lot of people into accepting that one.) And there they were anyway, with an incident that could possibly turn into an ugly war in their hands, and Ryuuko somehow in the center of it.

Kou had not contacted him yet. Why had he thought Kou would be useful outside of a fight? And, perfect counterpoint to all the trouble he was in, he suddenly sensed the other King, Homurabi, nearby. Running straight for his room, from the sound of it. And very upset too.

"What is it, I wonder?" Shisui thought aloud, his voice a distracted mutter. "If it's about Kou again, perhaps_ I_ should throw the both of them in Tokyo Bay and just heal any injuries after. And I'll heal them so perfectly that when they go running to Shirogane or Ryuuko, they can just dream of being believed…"

Let it not be said that, with all his years of dealing with Rei and Shin, Shisui had not learned a thing or two. One lesson being that crimes were pardoned if they had never happened (being able to heal most things away was, after all, not just a support ability). Another thing was that his patience could only stretch so far, and two completely sleepless days with people barging in and needing to be calmed down or consoled had made sure that it was worn as thin as a proverbial straw. Shisui being Shisui though, he still managed a strained smile as Homurabi burst in his room.

"Is something wrong?" Shisui asked, and chided gently: "You didn't even knock."

"Who cares about that?" Homurabi said. "This is also my room in the shadow world." Homurabi went to the foot of the bed and started pounding on the mattress with open, clawed hands. "You have to help me, Shisui!"

"Um," Shisui said, a little dismayed at the feeling of the bed dipping up and down, and his irritation disappearing in the face of Homurabi's obvious panic. He also couldn't discount the idea of finally being able to acquire some information from his counterpart. "At a guess, you being here means that Shirogane and Ryuuko are really getting married?"

"More than that," Homurabi said, "They're dethroning us!"

Shisui reached over his knees and set his hands on top of Homurabi's in comfort, and also to stop him from shaking the bed any further. "Now, what could have put such an idea in your mind?"

"Because…" Homurabi looked at him and paused, and withdrew his hands. Shisui let him, and only pulled his knees closer so he could rest his arms on them. "You think that I have something to do with this," Shisui identified the trouble. He sighed. "Your thoughts are very clear, Homurabi, and I think they're motivated by jealousy more than anything. You should really stop being jealous of Ryuuko. And of Shirogane too."

Homurabi let his breath out in a hiss. He sounded more sullen than hurt. "What do you understand?"

"Probably a bit more than you do yourself," Shisui answered truthfully, which he understood too late was the wrong thing to do. Hesitating at that point, however, would just as likely be wrong, so instead he tried again. "Homurabi," he said, "We really need to support the Direct Kings. The balance of everything that exists depends on them, and the weight of that responsibility is very heavy. They need us."

That drew a snort from Homurabi. "Ryuuko doesn't seem to need anything, does he?" Homurabi said. "It's so irritating. That guy exists without demanding anything or needing anyone, and he gets everything anyway."

"Homurabi…"

"I know he doesn't need me."

Shisui's hand hovered somewhere slightly above the blanket. The spike of surprise in Homurabi's aura told Shisui that the other had not planned on saying it. Well, Shisui thought, and released the breath he didn't realize he had been holding. "The last time we talked," Shisui said gently, "you were simply following after Shirogane. Why does that matter to you now?"

"Various reasons," Homurabi said, his shaky voice making it a question.

"Homurabi," Shisui said. "That isn't really an answer."

Homurabi shifted uneasily, like a child caught at a lie. "I've probably watched him too long," Homurabi said. This time, his voice had an element of grumbling and grim realization, the ever-present anger boiling over in a confused swirl.

Shisui smiled, and the smile was so perfectly serene that it succeeded in lending his next words a chisel sharpness. Shisui practically felt Homurabi wincing at it. "Then you should get along with him, right?"

"Urgh," said Homurabi, and took a step back.

"Right?" Shisui pressed. He felt a change in the air, like something being quickly withdrawn, and realized it was Homurabi backing away. Shisui reached out with his hand but failed to catch a sleeve. "Wait!" he called, but Homurabi had left through the door again. He was gone with a shouted "Damn you, I won't accept this!"

"Oh dear," Shisui said. He wiped at a bead of sweat on his cheek. "This is bad, isn't it?"

…

"Ryuuko?" Shirogane prodded one bare shoulder. He had already waited for as long as he could, and, before then, he had also watched over the sleeping Ryuuko for two days, and found that he preferred Ryuuko awake and able to talk and move around. There was also the ceremony to consider, and they were doubtless already late for it. "This isn't the time to sleep."

"Mm," Ryuuko said, eyes fluttering open for a moment to look at him and then closing again. He did not sound particularly grumpy when he said, "Go away, Shirogane."

"Ryuuko," Shirogane said again, only for Ryuuko to climb in the bed and crawl under the covers. His movements had the tired lethargy of sleep-walking, so Shirogane refrained from immediately commenting on how physically close Ryuuko was now to Kou, who was anyway burbling something about wanting a pet crocodile. Shirogane narrowed his eyes and stood from the floor by the bed. He pulled the blanket away, leaned over and touched Ryuuko's shoulder, giving it a gentle shake. "Kou is sleeping in that bed, Ryuuko," he said in a light tone that was hiding knives and probably a spiked club or two. All reserved for Kou, of course. Ryuuko rubbed listlessly at one eye, but at least his other eye was now open.

"Kou?" Ryuuko said. "I had forgotten." He sat up and rubbed at his shoulder. "Somehow I feel very tired. But I seem to be recovering now," Ryuuko assured him, and Shirogane silently thanked the high alcohol tolerance of Kings.

"Well," he said, "should we go then?"

Ryuuko dropped his hand and his eyes widened just slightly, and Shirogane had the feeling that he was only then remembering the situation they were in. Shirogane had anticipated it, and thought being faced with such a reaction from Ryuuko would make him angry at the very least. But somehow the anger was absent, and there was only a strange, unbreathing stillness as they looked at each other and he waited for what Ryuuko would do.

Ryuuko's eyes finally slid from Shirogane's face down to his own clothes. Ryuuko looked away again, but not before his cheeks had gone red. "Uhm," Ryuuko said. He wasn't meeting Shirogane's eyes, and he was blushing, but he finished bravely: "All right." He slid off the bed and stood there, hesitating, his lips trembling in an uncertain smile. "We…we should probably hurry."

Shirogane continued to look at him for a moment more in surprise, and then he smiled. "Then we best run, shouldn't we?" He closed his hand around Ryuuko's wrist and started pulling him along, laughing softly at Ryuuko's one weak protest of "Hey, wait, Shirogane!" They ran down the hall, Ryuuko pulling back a bit to bunch some of the skirt in one hand. Just outside the palace they surprised Lulu from a bush she was hiding behind. She fell back, and the look on her face was at once startled and guilty. But all too soon, she recovered and started to follow them.

"Shirogane-sama! Ryuuko-sama!" Lulu skipped just slightly behind them, her hands up on either side of her, like a child balancing itself. "You're really late!"

"I assume Sawaki waited?" Shirogane asked curtly, and Lulu laughed, one high note that somehow did not grate on Shirogane's nerves as much as it should have. It was probably because Shirogane kept irrationally thinking of the solid reality of Ryuuko's hand in his.

Lulu poked Ryuuko's side with a finger. She let out a curiously disappointed sound. "What? The corset's still on… And it's the way I tied it on too. Lulu's shocked," she declared, and Ryuuko turned his head to glance at her.

"You mean I could have taken it off?" Ryuuko asked, panting. "I…only now realized…I can hardly breathe in it…"

Shirogane slowed down at that, and Lulu said: "Of course not, Ryuuko-sama. But do you always do what you're supposed to do?"

"Hmm? What do you mean?"

"Oh, nothing. Ryuuko-sama shouldn't worry about it. But it seems this is going to be a regular wedding after all."

…

Sawaki's eyebrow twitched. "No rings?"

"No," Shirogane repeated for him patiently. "What are you talking about?"

"No rings then." Sawaki brought his notes to his nose to hide a slightly agitated flush. "And it's pretty irregular as it is…" he muttered, and said more loudly: "Let's go on. Do you… insert name… Shirogane, take this woman…Oh! I apologize…this _Rei_, to be your lawfully wedded…"

"Sawaki," Shirogane said. "You're noisy."

"But it's part of the ceremony! No rings, and now you're telling me, no vow?"

"Ryuuko, you know the vow, right? It's like that promise we had before."

Ryuuko blinked, and then his mouth stretched in a slightly sheepish grin at the remembrance. "Yes. It does seem to be, doesn't it?"

Shirogane reached for Ryuuko's hand and held it. "To protect the balance of our worlds together," he said to Ryuuko, although Shirogane was facing forward and did not now look at his counterpart. "Do you swear it?"

"I swear it."

Shirogane finally canted Ryuuko a look. "Good," he said, and Ryuuko's smile turned sunny in defense. "I'll take that as you swearing it back," Ryuuko said.

From her seat in front, Lulu giggled. "No one cares about that talking bit anyways…" she called out. "But the kiss? Where's the kiss?"

Shirogane brought his arms around Ryuuko's waist and pulled him close even as Ryuuko brought his own hand down, fingers closing on Shirogane's arm reflexively. The other hand tangled in the front of Shirogane's robe. "So, Ryuuko…"

"Uhm," Ryuuko said, laughing nervously. He tried to push away. "Will you wait for a moment more? I don't know why it was so easy for me before, but after all, you have to prepare for this kind of thing—"

Shirogane did not wait.

…

Kou awoke with a start. Then he groaned and pinched his nose. "My head hurts…and this pillow really is too soft. What do they think will happen to people's spines if they sleep on this? Huh?" He sat up and looked around, brain clearing only enough for him to discover that Ryuuko wasn't there. Or Shirogane.

"That bastard, he must have drugged it, right? Or there's no way I'd _faint_." Kou pulled the pillow from behind him and threw it across the room to thump against the wall. The exercise lacked the sense of satisfaction which normally came with destroying other people's things, so he started looking for kokuchi to throw around instead.

"I think I'm forgetting something too, but I wonder what it is…Ah! Yeah, Ryuuko isn't here!" Kou jumped to his feet, only a little wobbly. "Ryuuko!" he called. He went to the window, opened it and leapt out, landing on the ground in a crouch. Then he started running. He could feel the pull of Ryuuko's contract with him telling him that, yes, Ryuuko was still somewhere in the shadow world, but that bright sense which was Ryuuko was too faint for Ryuuko to actually be somewhere inside the palace. Shisui had instructed him on which path to open, which was why he had been able to find Shirogane's palace so quickly before. But now, outside, the grounds stretched out in a vast deserted plane relieved only by the boxed outline of mostly empty buildings. A moment later, Kou had to stop by one of the buildings to catch his breath. A kokuchi slithered past him, head bobbing, and Kou thought of tumbleweeds.

"Where is everyone?" Kou whined.

* * *

**Author's End Note: **And the story's almost done! This chapter got so long I had to cut it, so the end will probably be two chapters unless I can compress it into one. And I'm really sorry if the story isn't so funny anymore, though I hope it still is a bit… Ah, and sorry this is this late. Life made me a bit busy for the past month, although I seem to be going nowhere with it…Well, I promise I'll post the next chapter as soon as I can. :)


	10. Promoted Bishop III

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Monochrome Factor or any of its characters.

**Author's Note:** Summer makes me really lazy, so this took really long to write… Well, most of this was done at around the same time as the previous chapter, but I never seemed to get around to editing it. Ah, I'm sorry I'm so slow! And there's no fight scene, so I'm actually a bit disappointed…

**Warning:** Some implied stuff, kissing, evil scheming, and not much humor going on. Thought I should warn about it just in case.

**

* * *

**

The King is Dead, Long Live the King

Chapter Ten: Promoted Bishop Part III

While the other Shin moved to the table of food outside or over to Sawaki to remind him of the outing to the light world he had promised them, Shirogane looked sideways at Ryuuko and found that the other was still blushing, his mouth compressed, and the blood showing under smooth pale cheeks as if through paper. Ryuuko's eyes were fixed on the interesting chip on the pillar nearest where they stood, and his arms were crossed loosely over each other. Shirogane noted one finger idly tracing a line along his upper arm over and over, and he turned so that he faced Ryuuko more fully. "Do you want to check up on Kou?"

Ryuuko looked at him, startled, his flush turning guilty, and Shirogane frowned. Hadn't he been thinking about Kou? But now Ryuuko nodded, and Shirogane led the way back to his palace. Even though Ryuuko should know at least a little of the way by then—he'd visited a few times before on business, and the path they had taken earlier was a simple one to remember—Ryuuko looked distracted enough that Shirogane thought it better to lead.

He wondered, with a slight feeling of resentment and even slighter disgruntled guilt, if Ryuuko was worrying about the affairs he had left…or been pulled away from…in the light world. That wouldn't explain why he was blushing though.

He couldn't still be thinking about the kiss, could he?

Shirogane looked back at Ryuuko and decided he was still thinking about it. He sighed.

"There's a garden if you want to see it," Shirogane said.

"No, it's all right."

"We can go to the light world if you want."

"No, it's all right."

Shirogane stopped walking. "…There's hakua eating your hair."

A pause from Ryuuko, who also stopped walking to blink at him. Then Ryuuko said, his tone amused: "I am listening, you know. You don't have to test me with a farfetched statement."

"I mean," Shirogane said, "there _is_ hakua eating your hair."

Ryuuko turned around with a speed that almost dislodged the hakua from him, had it not been, as Shirogane had mentioned, attached to his hair. More slowly this time, Ryuuko craned his neck to look behind him. The hakua was sucking on the edges of his hair, probably attracted to it because it belonged to another being of light. It dug its thin insectile legs in the fabric of the skirt, and another inch of hair disappeared in its mouth. Ryuuko made a sound that could have been a whimper of fear, sympathy, or plain disgust.

Ryuuko pulled the hakua from him cautiously, wincing a bit at the saliva left on his hair. He pulled his hair over his shoulder and wiped it down using the gown's ample skirts with a probably understandable lack of modesty. Shirogane thought Ryuuko might have forgotten what he was wearing, or more probably that he wasn't wearing his normal clothes underneath them.

Ryuuko let the skirt down. He squatted to inspect the hakua on the ground, finally probing it with a gentle finger. "You really only realized now?" Shirogane asked, his eyes narrowed slightly in disbelief.

"The corset's too tight," Ryuuko answered, his cheeks warming again. "I was too caught up with the pain in my ribs that I didn't realize I was hurting somewhere else. This hakua is in bad shape," he added loudly, setting his hands on its back to heal it. The hakua made a senseless animal purr of gratitude, its back beginning to gleam with a healthier sheen. Ryuuko stopped once or twice, apparently not fully recovered himself. Finally, Ryuuko looked up from his work with an apologetic smile. "Um, could you…?"

Shirogane materialized his sword and cut a hole in the ground, and Ryuuko nudged the hakua into the opening and back to the light world. The hole sealed again, Shirogane allowed his weapon to disappear. "Shouldn't you have sensed there was hakua nearby?"

"My carelessness, I'm afraid." Ryuuko gave a little nervous laugh, and seeing Shirogane wasn't going to let him go with just that, elaborated a bit: "I was trying to sense something else."

"Something else?" Shirogane pressed. Ryuuko flicked him a glance from under long bangs.

"Why are you being so attentive, Shirogane?"

Shirogane couldn't have stopped his quick flare of annoyance if he tried. "Because you're clearly worrying about something."

Ryuuko smiled, and Shirogane tried to hide his own frown; the smile had come too quickly and was therefore suspicious. And then Ryuuko reached lightly and patted his back. It was probably something Ryuuko had often seen Kou do for other people, because there was a sense that the action was a borrowed one and not something Ryuuko would normally do. Even so, Shirogane found himself relaxing his guard a bit.

"You're thinking too much, Shirogane," Ryuuko said. His hand traveled up, squeezed Shirogane's shoulder briefly and released it. Shirogane was not fully convinced, but he started walking again, and Ryuuko fell in step beside him. Shirogane didn't remember the path being that long, but then, they had previously taken it at a run. Finally, though, they passed under the grainy shadow of the arches that marked one of the entrances to the palace.

"It was necessary," Shirogane said, and Ryuuko looked up.

"Hmm? What do you mean?"

"The kiss was necessary," Shirogane said doggedly, keeping his eyes on the path in front of them and not stopping even when Ryuuko's steps faltered and came to a complete halt. Shirogane had gone some twenty feet before Ryuuko closed the distance between them in a thoughtless sprint, slowing down to match Shirogane's strides and stare at him with eyes that seemed a little too brightly red in their scrutiny. Suddenly Shirogane wasn't very sure. "Weren't you worrying about it?"

"As to that," Ryuuko said, and paused. His hand moved unconsciously to his lip. He did not, however, blush again. "I did think putting your tongue in was going a bit too far for something that was only necessary…but if you say it was all out of necessity, that would actually hurt a bit." Ryuuko caught his look of surprise and mumbled: "At least I think so."

Shirogane tried to translate that into something he could understand and which wasn't too hopefully biased towards him. "So you weren't worrying about it?"

"No…"

"Well," Shirogane said, noticing that they had stopped in the middle of the hall, and that Ryuuko was starting imperceptibly to fidget. "In any case, I suppose we should go."

Ryuuko nodded, and they started walking again. "Kou might already be awake," Shirogane said conversationally, flashing Ryuuko a sideways glance. There was that look of guilt again, and Ryuuko's hand reached to tug at the high collar of his coat, but found nothing over his throat, of course. Ryuuko brought his hand down to his side again. "Ah, yes, he just might be…"

…

"This was obviously designed by Shirogane, that bastard," Kou huffed, and kicked an innocent pebble out of the way. "No care at all… Didn't he just repeat this same design for everything and change a bit? And also, this attempt at scenery…"

Kou sighed, his gaze running over the airy walkways with arches scattered here and there, the tall stairs with no hand-guards which led to hidden recesses or gave way to other paths. Kou thought Shirogane had probably cracked open a photographed catalogue for some temple ruins, and without really putting much thought to it, decided that was how his realm should look like. That would have been like Shirogane, all right. Never mind that the light realm was actually similar in appearance in a lot of ways.

"Such a smelly dump," Kou said loudly for his own assurance, although his grin wavered when he passed by the wall he'd scratched earlier with a rather involved drawing of his face with his tongue out. "Damn, that's the second time…"

Kou stopped and dragged his claw across the surface of the wall, scratching out a squiggly Shirogane with a hammer falling on his head. "Divine punishment," Kou chuckled, admiring his handiwork. "If you look like that all the time, I might even get to like you…"

"And now destruction of property," said a voice behind him, and Kou jumped, scowling when he identified the voice as Sawaki's. "Please don't cause too much trouble for me."

"Hey now," Kou said, turning around and shrugging heavily under the other's frown, taking quick refuge in lightheartedness. "You forgave my existence for _this_ long, don't get worked up over one or two drawings just because I can draw better than you."

"That's not your wall."

"This isn't your wall either."

"I still hold a tenuous claim over it," Sawaki defended, his voice taking a faintly hysterical edge. "Who do you think cleans up here?"

"…Is that really something you want people to know?" Kou asked with a disgusted pout. He made an unrepentant shooing motion with his hand when Sawaki moved forward with his hands fisted at his sides. "I'm joking," Kou said, "joking. Ah, this is Shirogane-san, by the way," Kou added, indicating his scribble. "Not you." He thought probably that was the problem.

Sawaki sighed and quite deliberately did not touch that subject. "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for Ryuuko," Kou replied, and Sawaki nodded. "You missed their wedding of course," Sawaki said, and covered his ears at the resulting cry. He waited before removing his hands from his ears and adding: "They must be back by now."

"You mean he's with Shirogane."

"What else, Kou?" Sawaki stared at Kou for a moment and took pity. "You shouldn't stay long here," he said, gruff and matter-of-fact, the kind of voice he used when he didn't know what voice to use. Kou hadn't caught on with this yet though; he just thought Sawaki was stuffy that way.

"Yeah, you can't wait to get rid of me, can you?" Kou said, plodding away from Sawaki. "Unfortunately for you, I don't plan to leave Ryuuko here."

Sawaki did not try to follow Kou or detain him, but after a moment's silence he did call after: "Kou. This is for when you reach that first intersection. Turn left, then for the intersections that follow: right, straight forward, left. A long walkway with arches, and then another intersection. Right, straight forward, another right."

Kou stopped walking. The stiffness of his back at least told Sawaki that he'd heard, and that he was considering the instructions carefully, memorizing them. Still, Kou looked at Sawaki over his shoulder. "And then I end up even more lost than I am now?"

"If you don't have Ryuuko with you," Sawaki said, meeting Kou's eyes and speaking with a different level of seriousness, "it's impossible for you to get more lost, right?"

"Hmph," Kou said grudgingly after a while, and dropped his gaze. "You don't expect me to follow you at all, which must mean that you want me to take any path except the one you said I should take, and that therefore has to be the right one."

"A confusing line of thought," Sawaki said slowly, and Kou laughed.

"Ah, I'm just saying I'll try that," Kou explained, "but I'm not thanking you because I know you tried to trick me." Kou looked at Sawaki critically. "This would probably lead me to Lulu or something," he said. But Sawaki's expression didn't change at all, so Kou walked on and called 'Thanks' over his shoulder.

"You just said you wouldn't thank me," Sawaki said.

"You obviously weren't expecting it," Kou answered with a lazy wave of his hand. As he walked, he muttered the instructions to himself to be sure he remembered them. Further on, the walls of the labyrinth stopped precisely before a dusty clearing, down the middle of which ran what was most likely Sawaki's 'long walkway with arches.' Kou walked down it with the feeling of wary trust disappearing somewhere in his stomach, replaced by a slight feeling of stupidity.

"…another right, and then I'm…here."

Lulu looked up from attacking the plate of cake in her hand with a fork. "Poochy! So you came for some cake after all!"

Kou sighed. "I knew it…"

…

Shirogane turned the knob with a sense of dry suspicion—normal since he was dealing with Kou—and opened the door to a room littered by cotton from a gutted pillow. The perpetrator, however, was nowhere to be found, probably gone out the open window before Shirogane could have a chance to skewer him, or Ryuuko to scold the brat and then forgive him with an infuriating statement like 'Well, I suppose I wasn't watching you properly.' Shirogane thought of that, and decided he could forgive Kou for not having stayed around.

"He's not here," Shirogane said aloud. He started to turn, but Ryuuko slipped his arms around Shirogane's shoulders from behind, pressing his cheek against the hair falling freely over the back of Shirogane's head and neck. Shirogane paused for a breath. "Ryuuko?"

Ryuuko's answer was to tighten his hold around Shirogane. Even if human restrictions didn't apply to them, Ryuuko was holding tightly enough that Shirogane had to fight back a wince. He lifted his head slightly, eyes gentle as he patted Ryuuko's arm, and after a while Ryuuko relaxed his hold and pulled back, hands still lightly resting on Shirogane's back and shaking a bit. Shirogane loosened the neck of his coat in a lazy effort to encourage the air back in his lungs, but ultimately wasted the effort by turning and pulling Ryuuko into a kiss. He was just a little surprised when the other tentatively kissed back.

They stumbled towards the bed and fell down on it, and Shirogane finally broke the kiss to push himself up on his elbows. Ryuuko took hold of the front of Shirogane's coat and pulled him close, and Shirogane understood it was embarrassment more than anything; Ryuuko didn't want him far enough away to see him sprawled there like that.

Shirogane kissed Ryuuko again, waiting for the other to loosen his grip before pushing himself up to gaze down at him. He laughed softly at the frustrated look on Ryuuko's face. "Ryuuko…" Shirogane murmured the first thing that came to mind: "You don't know how to kiss."

Ryuuko flushed and pulled Shirogane down by his coat again. He said, almost reproachfully: "It's not something a king needs to be particularly good at." But he allowed Shirogane to sit back, only frowning up at him a bit. "You seem to be very good at it," he said at length. "Do I want to know who you've been practicing on?"

"You when you were asleep," Shirogane said, just to watch Ryuuko's eyes go wide. He chuckled and buried his face in Ryuuko's neck, stroking strands of their hair out of the way. Ryuuko squirmed, but recovered enough to hold Shirogane away by the shoulders and say "That was a joke, right?" Instead of answering, Shirogane busied himself with unfastening the corset, and Ryuuko forgot his question and took in a long grateful breath, eyes sliding shut in relief.

"Ryuuko," Shirogane said, serious, "you're not drunk, are you?"

Ryuuko held still for a moment, then opened his eyes to stare vacantly over to one side. "Well, I was hoping I would be," Ryuuko admitted.

"Why?"

Ryuuko looked at Shirogane, then turned his face away. "To make things easier…I suppose?"

Shirogane frowned slightly at that, and dropped himself down on the side of the bed facing Ryuuko. The other, surprised, met his gaze and held it. "I hope you know I will never take advantage of you that way," Shirogane said.

"I didn't think—" Ryuuko began in a dismayed rush, but checked himself, willing himself back to his usual calm. He clasped Shirogane's hand and said more normally: "I'm sorry, Shirogane. That was just running away, wasn't it?"

Shirogane looked at Ryuuko for a long moment. "No," Shirogane said. "Not really. Just stupid." And Ryuuko laughed a bit.

"All right. I'll agree with that."

After all, Shirogane had to ask: "How long did you know about Kou?"

Ryuuko's pause had a little of surprise and a lot of self-consciousness in it. "Since the beginning," he said. "Kou tried to activate a bit of his power, then thought better of it."

"So that alerted you, but you say nothing, and we return to an empty room," Shirogane said, and smirked, reclaiming his previous position on top of his counterpart. "How fortunate for me."

Ryuuko shifted uneasily, almost panicked. "Shirogane," he said, looking over Shirogane's shoulder. "Close the door." When Shirogane only leaned down to kiss him again, Ryuuko put his hand against the other's chin and pushed him away. "Shirogane!"

"All right," Shirogane said sullenly. "But afterwards, you're giving me a reward."

…

For the first time in the last three days or so, Kou actually felt mature. Lulu had that effect on some people, especially when she got to repeating herself in that high voice she used. Since Shirogane usually compared Kou with Lulu whenever he caught Kou complaining to Ryuuko about something, Kou felt a little miffed and offended. His voice wasn't Lulu-high, and he didn't cling! Not unless it was Ryuuko, anyway.

"What, Poochy isn't going to eat anything?"

"For the last time…" Kou sighed, moving his shoulder blade in quick but hopeless shrugs to try to dislodge Lulu. By then he knew she didn't even need to cling harder to stay put. And why was the feel of her breasts on his back just making him tearful instead of happy? "It's not 'Poochy.' That's Kou-san or Kou-kun to you. I'll even settle with 'kouhai' if you really feel like your seniority should be respected."

That was one thing about her too: she was supposed to be older than him. Which meant she knew Shirogane and Ryuuko for longer, and to her, as probably to Sawaki, Kou was like a baby chick kept around for pet purposes. And he wasn't exactly sure they weren't right. Ryuuko had never clearly told him why he thought Kou's existence as a Child was a good idea, and he didn't need to know what Sawaki thought.

Lulu put a finger to her lip. "Kou-kouhai?" she said, and burst into a fit of giggles. "Kou-kouhai?" Lulu tested the sound again, and Kou gave another sigh.

"Lulu, you know the way back to the palace, right?"

"Lulu does, but…"

"Shirogane's there right now." He crossed his fingers for her to take the bait, but Lulu only shifted, and then after all released him, jumping to the table to dangle her feet down the side. She propped herself up with her arms on either side of her and looked over her shoulder with her face arranged in a not-quite-pout. "I know that, but…" She let that hang too.

"But?" Kou repeated, feeling impatient. Lulu's face screwed into a proper pout this time.

"Lulu doesn't want to cause trouble, and Sawaki said to leave them alone."

"Oi, oi," Kou said, lightly. "Bad things might happen if we leave them alone. The ground could break open… my hand might accidentally twitch and smack that cake from the table. Sawaki might find his weekly planner missing…" The second one was a threat, but the last was a promise to himself more than anything; and if Sawaki was any bit like Ryuuko, Kou would know where his planner was kept too.

Lulu dismissed both threat and promise with a wave of her hand. "That can't be, right?" Lulu said. And then, face contorting in an expression Kou guessed was only softened by her face not being used to it: "You have to try harder than that. Kou-kouhai," she added as an afterthought, not laughing.

Kou sighed again, turning away from Lulu, who jumped right back to happily babbling about something else. Everyone on the Shin side was crazy, and he was beginning to wonder just how Ryuuko and Shisui were able to keep calm when dealing with them. Especially Shisui, seeing as he mostly took care of business with Shin after it had sadly been established that Ryuuko was too naive for his own good, and incapable of hard bargaining besides. Suddenly, Kou started.

"Ah," he said in hollow realization. "I forgot about Shisui."

…

"This is unexpected," Ryuuko said over his shoulder, sounding like he really hadn't expected it. "When you said you wanted a reward, you meant tea with me."

Ryuuko was back in his old clothes, though these were a bit crumpled and missing the arm bands and gloves. Having found Ryuuko somehow still unable to materialize new clothes, they had gone to look for his old ones, and Ryuuko told Shirogane that Lulu had taken them earlier for safekeeping. Lulu's idea had apparently been to tuck them away in different drawers between other clothes, probably so Ryuuko would have a hard time finding them again if he backed out. Fortunately, Shirogane had been able to find most of them, and then later he remembered to ask Ryuuko for his reward.

Shirogane sighed and moved his teacup idly in front of him on the kitchen table. "Because we were interrupted last time."

"Hmm, well, tea is always nice," Ryuuko said, glancing back at Shirogane with a smile that dropped a bit as he continued: "But you don't have any tea leaves."

"We have enough tea things," Shirogane said, sounding like he wasn't concerned at all. "See? We have cups. Saucers too."

Ryuuko sighed and gently lifted a small stack of coasters out of the way of his rummaging. "Saucers usually do go with cups," he said in the type of voice Shirogane imagined went with a raised eyebrow. "Ah, wait, I think I found something…" Ryuuko returned to the table with a small cardboard box Shirogane didn't even recognize as his anymore. He frowned down at it, finally lifting his gaze back to Ryuuko, who was dusting the top of the box with his hand to read what was written on it. "Well," Shirogane said when Ryuuko's eyes half-closed in a critical stare, "what is it?"

"Black tea," Ryuuko said, opening the box. "In teabags." Ryuuko lifted one out by its string, turning it. "And this one has been used before." He gave Shirogane the same stare he had given the teabag, then set the teabag down to heat some water. "Somehow I feel like I understand your character more and more," Ryuuko remarked.

Shirogane lifted an eyebrow. "And what character is that?"

"To begin with," Ryuuko said thoughtfully, filling the silence as they waited for the water to boil, "you're the type of person who doesn't stop to consider others much. You don't like asking for help, approach people only when you have no choice in the matter, trust people sparingly and expect them to completely trust you, and generally try to do a lot of things on your own. Which sometimes results in interesting failures."

Shirogane's eye twitched. "You just wanted to tell me that and couldn't find a way to say it, am I right?"

"No, no…rather than criticism, that was an observation. How do I say this? I thought it was really like you."

Shirogane narrowed his eyes, not knowing how else to react. "You have strange ideas about what isn't criticism," he said slowly.

Ryuuko laughed gently, returning to the table to pour hot water over the tea bags he had placed inside their cups earlier. "Obviously some of that wasn't just from seeing your tea," he said. "But you know, Shirogane, people don't usually put used teabags back in the box they came from. It's easier to leave them lying on the table. I know that's what Kou does. If this was Sawaki, he would have disposed of it properly, but it was put back so neatly in the box, so I thought it had to be you."

Shirogane frowned. "Why should it be me?"

"Well…" Ryuuko glanced at the box again. "Teabags should be thrown out after you're done with them, unless you're scrimping and don't mind using the same ones over again. You're the only one I can think of who might not concern himself with knowing something like that," Ryuuko said bluntly. "And besides," he added, smiling again, "I don't get to see it often, but this definitely has the mark of Shirogane's gentle and awkward side."

Shirogane looked down at his cup and didn't say anything. But he did raise his eyes after a moment, saw Ryuuko glancing at him, and wondered if he hadn't been able to hold down his blush.

Ryuuko leaned forward slightly. "Shirogane?" he said. "You have to agitate it."

Shirogane blinked a few times in perfect lack of understanding, wondering what sort of order that was, and Ryuuko sighed and flicked his wrist, moving the teabag around slightly in his cup by the string. "Don't just let it lie there like that," Ryuuko said. "Or it's not going to taste very good."

"Of course," Shirogane said, and stirred his own teabag around obediently.

…

"So? Why did you call me here?" Sawaki asked, and added, "My lord."

Homurabi frowned at the disrespect implied by that pause, but did not directly comment on it. Instead, he said: "I want to remind you that your contract is for absolute obedience."

Sawaki glanced up from inspecting the wrecked tiles of the floor, making a point not to ask Homurabi how it had happened. "You have no need to remind me of that," Sawaki said, and added dryly: "If it's on your order, I'll lick the floor or whatever you want."

Homurabi hesitated only briefly, then stepped away from the balcony and moved nearer to where Sawaki stood on the other side of the hall. Something about him made Sawaki flinch, and then he realized that Homurabi was looking rather thoughtful. Sawaki bore his stare for as long as he could, then hazarded an uneasy guess: "Do you require proof?"

"Yes," Homurabi said. "How about you to sing the most embarrassing song you know?"

Sawaki allowed the pause to stretch a bit before he said: "I don't know any songs." It wasn't a lie, exactly. If he didn't include the songs that had inevitably burned their way to his brain because of Lulu singing them, then he really didn't know any songs.

"Dance?" Homurabi asked expectantly, and Sawaki said: "Can't I just lick the floor?"

Homurabi frowned, his eyes narrowing in his face in judgment. "Why do you keep mentioning licking the floor? If that's a fetish, Sawaki…"

Sawaki slapped a hand to his face, feeling very tired. "My lord, I am loyal. That is what you want to know, right? In any case, why do you need to know?" Now it was Sawaki's turn to look at Homurabi with his eyes narrowed. "You didn't kill anyone, did you? And need to hide the body?"

Homurabi moved one of his earrings idly between his fingers. And then, gently and seemingly off-topic, he asked: "What do you think about the balance between our worlds?"

"A tiring topic," Sawaki said. But Homurabi only waited patiently for him to continue, and Sawaki sighed. He had in fact expected talk like this before, but not now. And he couldn't just pretend that he didn't understand, not when it was Homurabi himself who had brought it up. "It has never come down to a war," he said, treading carefully around the topic.

"But the balance can be tipped in our favor," Homurabi said, "if Ryuuko wasn't there."

There was no way but be direct about it then. Sawaki had the urge to slap Homurabi across the face, but that was surely pushing the limits of what he could do, and random brawls had always been Kou's way, not his.

"Any plan about tipping the balance can only lead to failure," Sawaki said. "Let's admit it, lord: no side can win in this. If we get rid of Ryuuko, which is what you seem to be dangerously implying here, it might mean the end of both worlds. There will be one Direct King, and even if that Direct King is on our side, it's not necessarily a good thing when he has no counterpart and his counterpart is there as a means to keep his power stable."

Homurabi watched him with a show of amusement that did not alarm Sawaki so much as irritated him. Homurabi had never really been threatening to him, and Homurabi's composure now was only making him surly. "So you think it can't be done?"

"Impossible. Yes."

"But the two worlds might actually have begun from one world, and only the existence of the Direct Kings keeps the two separate. In which case, tipping the balance would mean going back to how the world should be, wouldn't it? As for my brother…" Homurabi paused, and finally seemed to hesitate. But he went on: "As for Shirogane, you said it yourself. If his power becomes unstable, it would be dangerous to have him here. However, there is a simple solution for that." Homurabi looked at Sawaki, watching for his reaction. "Once the light world loses its Direct King," Homurabi said, "we will give them ours. Perhaps that will even affirm the balance for a while."

"What do you mean?"

"Exile."

Sawaki allowed that to sink in, and then sighed and shook his head. "This isn't something we should be talking about, is it?" Sawaki said. He made to turn away.

"Sawaki," Homurabi said, and his tone was light. "This is the time when you can't turn back, or I will kill you."

Sawaki stopped. "Are you giving the order as a King?"

"Yes."

Sawaki did not even bother sighing this time, but dropped on one knee before Homurabi and bowed his head. "I understand." He lifted his head, but did not look at Homurabi. "Whatever else you might have planned, the world might simply just end anyway. Are you all right with that?"

"I don't care about the end of the world," Homurabi said, turning back towards the balcony and the shadows that massed underneath it. "All I wish for…"


End file.
